Colt Hero

'02 Impala (3.4L) Intake Project Complete, but...

It's done and seems to be running fine - smooth idle, heats up to about 185-192, new T-Stat appears to be opening OK ... BUT I drove it 30 miles to work today and could smell a very faint whiff of coolant inside the car with Outside Air flowing throught the vents. I've looked several times for leaks but so far cannot see any. You'd think that if there was a leak while driving that you'd still be able to detect it after pulling over and shutting off the car. Maybe I need to leave the car running after stopping ...

Also, I haven't been able to get more than, say, 6-7 quarts of antifreeze/water mix into the car (a jug and a half) - even after bleeding at the T-Stat and leaving the radiator and tank caps off (and trying to fill after the T-Stat opened)! I could've sworn the system was bone dry when I opened it up - never saw any coolant spill out anywhere after emptying the radiator. When I started it up for the first time, I was getting the Low Coolant messages, but as I bled and filled it those went away and haven't returned (I DID remove and clean the radiator sensor). I also overfilled the plastic tank (at, or even slightly above, the HOT line) thinking that I'd be pouring in AT LEAST two full jugs and it would bubble down, but it hasn't gone down much. Pretty weird! After the drive to work today I tried to pour more in at noontime, but same thing - just a few tablespoons until the filler neck started to overflow. So I guess it's full!

So should I flush and fill the coolant again - like I will be doing with the oil in a couple of weeks - since there apparently is contaminated coolant still inside?

HotSauce6226

what t-stat did you use after? and what coolant>

Colt Hero

I don't have the part numbers in front of me, but I bought the dealer T-Stat because I didn't want to take a chance on installing an aftermarket one and having problems. It's not that easy to get at the T-Stat on this car after everything is back together.

For the coolant, I've been using the Wal-Mart stuff for years without any problems, so that's what I re-filled with. This way, both of my cars have the same coolant. This stuff supposedly mixes with any type of coolant, but I always flush and refill with one type of coolant. Even before the gasket job, I had completely flushed out all the Dex-Cool with several water flushes and re-filled with this green stuff. Did that about two years ago, I believe...

shawnvw

The coolant could just be some that spilled on the exhaust and other parts of the motor and they are just burning off.
You may have emptied the rad completly, but the block was probably still full of coolant. 1 way of refilling the rad when an airlock is suspected, is to fill the system as much as you can, get the motor nice and hot, then shut the eninge down while making sure there is lots of coolant in the bottle. let the engine cool completly(couple hours usually pretty good). after the engine is cooled down, check the bottle again, if there was any major air locks, the cooling system would have sucked the coolant from the bottle in. open the rad, refill as needed, and top up the bottle as needed

Colt Hero

Shawnvw:

Yeah, I'm guessing it's exactly what you're saying - coolant burning off the block. But I really didn't spill much coolant - that's what concerns me. Still - not visible leaks anywhere. Maybe I'm just paranoid.

On the refill, what you said is sort of what I did. When I couldn't get any more coolant into the radiator and the bleed screwonly spewed out a stream of coolant and no air, I slightly overfilled the plastic tank - thinking I was going to be pouring in AT LEAST 8 Qts, so on cooldown the engine would eventually just suck it out of the tank. Never seemed to happen. I guess it's full.

I'm going to flush it again in a couple of weeks when I change the oil again. I'll measure what comesout. Maybe even open the block plugs this time - I've done this before on my Taurus onthe frontbank.

HotSauce6226

i would say coolant still on the block. By the way i would of went with a 180* tstat

Colt Hero

Potentially bad news regarding my intake gasket replacement work a few months ago:
[/align]I had replaced my intake gaskets and drove the car 3-4k miles over three months with no apparent problems. But then I drove the car 500 continuous miles and the LOW COOLANT LEVEL message reappeared! When cool, the level in the radiator neck was about two inches low (but the tank still had plenty of fluid in it), so I topped it up.After driving the car an additional 1700 or so miles, I pulled the level sensor and found it to be slightlyoil-fouled. Not nearly as bad as before the gasket job, but apparently enough to make the sensor trip. Also good news is that the underside of the radiator cap remains clear (not full of fudgicle sludge like it routinely was before the gasketreplacement).[/align][/align]So the question is:are myNEW gaskets leaking somewhat, or does the system just have residual sludge inside it thatI may never be able to get out (without replacing the radiator, for example)? There are no EXTERNAL leaks that I can see, and no white smoke coming out the back of the car, so I'm hoping it's just residual gunk in the system.
[/align]-[/align]One other thing I've noticed recently: After driving the car, the frame of the car (and the black cross-brace bars) inside the engine compartment get pretty hot to the touch. Is this normal?? I know the engine heats up and some of this heat will transfer to the surrounding metal inside the engine compartment, but I just never noticed this level of heat before.

I'm concerned that this could be an indication that the engine heat is not being dissipated correctly (through the radiator). Is it normal for the cross-braces and frontal metal (the long color-painted metal section along the front where the hood latches) to get pretty hot?? Doesn't seem right to me...[/align]

shawnvw

The car is probably running a little hotter due to hotter weather. Or the two problems could be related like you said...a build-up of gunk in the rad, so instead of cooling through the fins of the rad, the heat transfers to the body of the car.
If it were my car, I would continue to drive it, but keep an eye on everything to see if it gets worse

Colt Hero

Looks like bad news. This past weekend I did my usual engine inspection and noticed a fair amount of wetness under the throttle body. Looks like coolant leaking at the base of the "V" seal (on the opposite side from where it leaked with the original gaskets). Took all of 7k miles to fail.

So where did I go wrong? Here are some of my theories:

1.) A gasket shifted on me as I dropped the intake back in. I was using the Fel-Pros and they never really snapped into the locating holes. Every time I tried to push them in they seemed to spring back out a bit. The locating studs were rubbery.

2.) The head was pitted too much on this side around the coolant passages and really should've been machined. I wanted to fill some of the pitting (which really didn't look bad to me, but what do I know) with the Permatex sealant I was using, but I had read somewhere NOT to do this - so I didn't.

3.) I reused the old bolts and shouldn't have. Again, the old bolts looked fine to me (no obvious stretching or other damage), but maybe they distorted after being re-installed.

4.) I didn't torque the short angled bolts on this side properly. I have to say that I never felt really good about torquing these bolts. I tried a Crow's Foot (to avoid the Intake's self-obstruction), but that didn't seem to work well. So I ended up using a Universal and extension, but it rubbed a bit against the Intake body as I turned the bolthead and even though I got the "click" and used the correct torque value, I wondered how "true" these bolts were tightened.

5.) I didn't properly lay the bead of sealant at the base of the "V" seal on this side. Well, I didn't UNDER seal it, that's for sure. I laid a pretty healthy-looking (and neat) bead (covering the full width of the metal if I remember right). But maybe this was a bad thing?

I know THIS much: I'm not going to touch it for a while (if ever). I'll just go back to what I was doing before replacing the original gaskets - monitoring the coolant loss and changing the oil regularly. If it starts hemmoraging again like it did the first time, I guess I'll give it another shot...

shawnvw

I don't know who said to not use silicone,but I totally disagree. As long as you don't go overboard with the stuff, I highly suggest you use it on both sides of the gasket anywhere coolant or oil will pass through. If you put just a thing coating across the rubber parts, they will seal fortwice the amount of time than just gasket alone. Also it helps keep the gasket in place while assembling the parts. Also seals up those pits in the head you found.

I Have never used new bolts when doing these intakes. if you take a wire wheel to the bolt, and get all the crap off of it, you shoulnd't have nay problems

If youhad under sealed the valley, you would be leaking oil, not coolant, So I don't hink your problem lies there
As for your coolant leak, did you replace the gasket on the throttle body? If you haven't, its not too bad of a job to just change that, and you should have it left over from the gasket kit you bought(if you bought a kit rather than just individual gaskets)