myronjohns

Hi,

I have a 1999 Chevy Suburban 1500, 5.7 V8, 182,000 miles on it.I replaced the intake gasket around 80,000 miles due to a coolant leak on rear of motor. I hear that is very common for this engine. Recently I have noticed a loss ofcoolant. However, I can't find an external leak. I checked the exhaust and it seemsdamp all the time, even when the engine is warmed up.I figure I have a blown head gasket or a possible intake gasket leak. Are there any checks that I should look into? I don't want to pull a head and it be the intake gasket or something else I overlooked. Are there any good engine coolant leak additives that would plug the leak. I'm leary about these and wanted to know if anyone has had good sucess with any of these.


Also, when it is cold it sounds like the engine has a noisy lifter. The noise goes away in about 10 minutes after it warms up. I talked to a local mechanic and he suggest some Marvel Mystery Oil to see if that would help with the lifter noise.He explained that the MMO is a good detergent oil. Currently, I have mobil 1 oil running in it. I had been running mobile 5000 in it before the lifter noise. Any other tricks to quiet this lifter noise?

Could the noisy lifter and loss of coolant be related?



Thank you, Myron