So, a family member of mine has a 2001 Impala 3.4

Long story short, I discovered a intake manifold gasket leak (shocker i know) a couple weeks ago. I told him not to drive it unless absolutely necessary and short trips only, at that time the leak was external as the oil level was normal and the correct color and the coolant was still orang-ish.

Fast forward to today. I was at their house and asked them if they checked their fluids lately. No was the answer. So i checked them. Oil looked like chocolate milk and from what I could see in the radiator, it was also chocolaty. I later found out that they didn't listen to me and drove it every day to work(3 blocks away) and let it warm up in the mornings for upwards of 20 minutes, so I think that finished it off. Im planning on doing the repair, as I have done this on my 2 trucks with vortec engines.

I know milky oil is the intake gasket, but would milky coolant be the head gasket/damaged head then?

Anything else I should look at while I have it tore down? Any common places the block gets cracked ect?

Thanks

 

Milky coolant? - When I had the lower intake gasket let go on mu 2001 Impala LS with the 3.8, I was told that the failure could manifest its way by either having oil in antifreeze, antifreeze in the oil or external leaks of oil or antifreeze. In my case I had oil in the radiator, oil seeping out the bolts on the intake manifold and antifreeze leaking on the outside of the engine. The oil did not look milky in the radiator but looked more like sludge floating on top of the antifreeze. It took a weekend to take it all apart clean it up then get it back together.