98 Express Question - Antifreeze
 

Hi,

I have a question...I have a 98 Express with the 5.7 Vortec engine. Van has about 176xxx on it and it runs great, doesn't use any oil, and oil doesn't get dirty between changes. The last 2 weeks I've noticed a smell of hot antifreeze when I would pull up somewhere and stop. It is not a smell on the inside of the van, but rather on the back. I have had a small spot about 3" in diameter under the van for about 2 weeks of antifreeze as well. Not every morning, but a good amount of mornings. I inspected all hoses the best I could and found nothing. I could not find anything on the water pump either...including the weep hole. I took the cover of the engine off in the cab and found a little antifreeze towards the back of the motor and suddenly thought head gasket. No water in oil, and doesn't seem to be any oil in the antifreeze. That antifreeze could have blown back there. I never have had any leaks from the rear of the engine. Then, this morning I found water around the water pump gasket is my best guess.

Question being: Why can I run the engine for an hour, not see anything leak, shut the engine off (obviously with pressure on the cooling system) and not find anything for a few hours, go to bed, get up the next morning and there is a puddle and antifreeze around the water pump? After three hours for example of the engine being off, there is nothing...I mean NOTHING around the water pump that I can see? Yet, I can smell hot antifreeze?

Any comments would be welcome. My Wife has a cancerous tumor on her spinal cord and we have TONS of medical bills, so if I can do this repair myself once I track it down, and track it to the right component, then I'd rather do that than take it to the shop.

Thanks for your input!

it may be the intake manifold gasket (may as well change the water pump while there) if you have done your own mechanical work b4 them it could be done by you, if you dont know what a 9/16 wrench is i wouldnt suggest it lol

Bars leak...
 

Well,

I took the van to the shop today and they think it is what I thought it was too...the intake manifold gasket. I did find out that at least the heads on this motor were rebuilt at one time...there are little circles epoxied to the rear of them...

Anyhow, the price they gave me for replacing this is $600, which I really don't have the money to spend...Now for the question: I used BARS Leak on an older car one time to stop a radiator leak, and was wondering if anyone thought this would work on the intake manifold leak? They tech put a pressure tester on the radiator and pumped it up, and we could not get it to leak to where we could see it come out, so he said it was a very minor leak. A little bit of hot antifreeze smells like a lot...Just wondering the thoughts...with it being such a small leak, would you suggest it? I've heard some of the "leak stoppers" can harm the block or water pump, but I've been told by 2 people before that BARS Leak was the way to go...

Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks in Advance!