Hey guys, I've got an old 88 c1500 with a 5.0 v8 and it runs good but for about 3 -4 months now its been using water and starting weird, some times it will start right up with a high idle and sometimes i manually have to idle it with my foot or it will die, I was just wondering what I could look at or do to help this issue i really hope my head isnt messed up or anything

 

how many miles? what color is your oil? has the intake manifold gasket been replaced yet? if so, how many miles ago? does the exhaust smell like burnt antifreeze? is it down on power? (feel weaker than usual) have you ran a compression test?

Sounds like an intake gasket issue buy "with out the questions above answered, can't give a definitive answer"