Russ B
Newbie
111k miles, runs fine. Exhaust at tailpipe lots white steam and coolant. Tried K Seal and Blue Devil. Neither worked. So pulled heads and sent to machine shop. Tested good, but needed milling for minor warpage. Put back on. Felpro head and intake gaskets, new head bolts. Did nothing, waste of money. Checked cylinders looked fine and old head and intake gaskets were okay. Compression was 180 in all cylinders. No oil contamination.
This all started a few weeks ago after I changed intake manifold gaskets. I did it as routine maintenance because many posts say it is a common failure. The intake EGR passage was totally clogged with carbon. Cleaned that out.
In desperation, I pulled the thermostat and put in another can of K Seal. Forget the bottle instructions, idlying does not work. Drove it for 30 minutes then allowed it to cool overnight. Next day smoke stopped. Reinstalled thermostat and ran it again, no problem. Still nervous that it could fail again. Not sure if it worked because it had most of 2 cans or I just did a better job the second time.
So this brings me to why I am posting. Has anyone else experienced such a situation? Normally you would think new cylinder head gaskets would fix it when the heads test good. I suppose I could have a cracked block, but want to explore other possibilities.
Here is my thinking. Since this started when I changed the intake manifold gaskets and cleaned the EGR port, could the problem be a cracked manifold? I checked the manifold and could not find any cracks, but unable to check internally. The EGR passage does get very hot and it runs parallel to the coolant passages. So a crack in the EGR-coolant wall would allow coolant to exit out the exhaust. I did notice bubbling in the radiator. The only thing stopping it was the carbon buildup.
Anyone experiencing cracked intake manifolds?
This all started a few weeks ago after I changed intake manifold gaskets. I did it as routine maintenance because many posts say it is a common failure. The intake EGR passage was totally clogged with carbon. Cleaned that out.
In desperation, I pulled the thermostat and put in another can of K Seal. Forget the bottle instructions, idlying does not work. Drove it for 30 minutes then allowed it to cool overnight. Next day smoke stopped. Reinstalled thermostat and ran it again, no problem. Still nervous that it could fail again. Not sure if it worked because it had most of 2 cans or I just did a better job the second time.
So this brings me to why I am posting. Has anyone else experienced such a situation? Normally you would think new cylinder head gaskets would fix it when the heads test good. I suppose I could have a cracked block, but want to explore other possibilities.
Here is my thinking. Since this started when I changed the intake manifold gaskets and cleaned the EGR port, could the problem be a cracked manifold? I checked the manifold and could not find any cracks, but unable to check internally. The EGR passage does get very hot and it runs parallel to the coolant passages. So a crack in the EGR-coolant wall would allow coolant to exit out the exhaust. I did notice bubbling in the radiator. The only thing stopping it was the carbon buildup.
Anyone experiencing cracked intake manifolds?
