jimiheadstone

1999 GMC suburban 5.7 k1500.
For the last year the car has ran like new.
I replaced so many things on this truck (due to the previous owner NEGLECT)
168,000 miles.

I took a trip to the store the other day, like 5 miles round trip.
Less then 2000 feet from my driveway the radiator cracked near the oil cooler. coolant exploded every where.

The truck has never overheated as long as I owned it.
In fact when I was at the bank I checked my gas Gauge and also look and the temp, it was 190 with the normal going up and down to 190 down to 160 then back up to 190. The A/c was cranking.


Well I replaced the radiator.
Put in the proper GM antifreeze
Started her up and let her warm up.
I replace coolant and needed with front and rear heat on.
Let it run for 15 minutes.
Shut it down for a half hour.
No over heating never went past 190.
Came out checked the antifreeze level needed more.
Checked it a little while later needed more.
Still not over heating just real thursty for antifreeze.

come out again and the radiator in EMPTY.
Something wrong here.

checked the oil and the dipstick was filled with water and oil.
so the oil pan collected most of the antifreeze.

drained the oil gallons of sludge.
took all the water out of the engine.

what would have caused this.
During all this the engine ran great no problems.
During all this not a bit of white smoke out of the tail pipe NOTHING.

has this happened to anyone else what was the cause?
Is it worth fixing or is this the end of it?

I'm thinking the intake manifold gasket completely failed.

any thoughts from someone who has experienced this. no guesses please.
Was going to do a compression test to see if the head gaskets failed but with all that sludge who knows what will happen.

I was thinking to drop the pan.
Clean it out the best I could put some oil in it with a new filter
start it up with no water let it run for a few minutes then start taking it apart.

just curious to see if it's worth it or not.

thanks

73shark

If the intake manifold still has the crossover passage between the heads at the front and rear of the engine, it's possible that the intake gasket has failed on one of those or more.

jimiheadstone

problem resolved - took 12 hours to fix but i did it.
It took me almost 2 hours to drain the oil it was like a honey Mush substance. almost 2 gallons of crap was in that pan.

Took the whole top of the motor apart and cleaned everything.

Valve covers were totally covered inside with 2 inches of glitch.

Intake manifold gasket completely missing on 3 corners where the water jackets were. So that was it!!!!

cleaned all that glitch out of the motor and intake.

Left the oil drain open and poured quart after quart of oil over the cam and rockers to have that crap drain out.

New oil and filter with some sea foam.

Started right up and runs great!!! no more water in the oil.
No smoke out of the tail pipe. Oil pressure good, temp good.


gonna run it on the road tomorrow for a little bit and see how she does and change the oil and anti freeze again.

After that in a week or so gonna drop the oil pan and clean it out and check out the pick up screen. And change the oil again.

So far so good runs so much better and I'm thrilled i got the distributor in on one shot with no code.

YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!

73shark

Thanks for the feedback. Hope the water in the oil didn't hurt any bearings.

Sledgehammer

Had it happen to my 1999 gmc burb. same thing. Always needing antifreeze but no leaks nor did I find it in the oil...amount I guess was small enough. Then one day boom , gasket blew out completely to the inside and outside....