Well today I was under my 97 tahoe just checking things out, and I noticed that there was a lil bit of coolant leaking around the right side of the oil pan, anda lil on my starter. Can somebody help me target the problem.

thanks
nick

 

Possibly dripping from the back of the intake gasket where the head seals with theintake. I have had that happen before. I have also had a Ford leak coolant from the headgasket and drip down but that happened in the front. There could also be a pin size hole in a coolant hose.

 

well thats what i thought it might be. is it really that hard to replace the intake manifold gaskets on these things?

nick

 

could be head gasket, but i'd be looking closely at the frost plugs

 

If its the intake gasket I dont know a whole lot about chevy engines. The tbi setup doesnt look as hard as a Fuel Injection setup to remove. I have a similiar coolant leak and I drive my car to work everyday and check the fluid a couple times a week and monitor the engine coolant temperature closely when driving. If the leak is small right now you could prolong it till it gets larger and easier to spot.

 

blkclipse,

Most likely, an intake manifold gasket leak. Mine just went last fall (120,000 miles). I actually though it was a bad freeze plug, since the coolant was apparently leaking from that area. Futher inspection reveiled that it was indeed an intake manifold gasket,a very common problem in these motors.

If you are not sure that this is the issue, pressure check the coolant system, before tearing into the motor. Although it is a straight forward repair,whether or not it's "hard" depends on one's abilities and comfort level. I chose to let someone else handle it...

BTW, I wouldn't put it off to long... The problem willget worse, and it's quite possible that the leak can get to your motor's internals which can cause a lot of damage.

FTR, your motor is SFI, not TBI.It is a SFI system which utilizes a single-disk injector connected to 8 individual valves via flexible fuel lines...

Good Luck!

 

well this may be a stretch but do you have a factory block heater ,i had one in a 98 i had and it leaked in about the same aera .

 

Same thing happened to mine. Also had a bad radiator. $1700 at the dealer. then 2 weeks later the main bearings failed...