I think I have an intake gasket problem

Synned · Oct 10, 2005

Okay when my car heats up in runs awful. It hesitates, backfires etc. I think I found the problem. My exhaust smells very sweet and I had someone else verify this to make sure im not crazy. Very very sweet like you cant even smell gasoline. This is coolant burning right? Well when the car heated up I did a cylinder balance test to make sure that it wasnt a head gasket and everything came up good. So now I'm thinking its an intake gasket. My idle is usually solid though.

And yesterday something was smoking behind my engine looked like from behind the intake but I couldn't tell what it was. It was dark out. It was smoking pretty bad, I think it was coolant but im not positive. It was white smoke.
Am I on the right path to thinking its the intake gasket? It's an excuse to buy a cobra intake

blackice · Oct 10, 2005

Did you do a pressure test on the radiator.

Synned · Oct 10, 2005

No I didn't.
If the intake gasket was leaking, would coolant get into the oil? Or just into the combustion?

urban96 · Oct 10, 2005

depends on where the gasket failure is

Synned · Oct 10, 2005

vristang · Oct 10, 2005

Synned said:
Okay when my car heats up in runs awful. It hesitates, backfires etc. I think I found the problem. My exhaust smells very sweet and I had someone else verify this to make sure im not crazy. Very very sweet like you cant even smell gasoline. This is coolant burning right? Well when the car heated up I did a cylinder balance test to make sure that it wasnt a head gasket and everything came up good. So now I'm thinking its an intake gasket. My idle is usually solid though.

And yesterday something was smoking behind my engine looked like from behind the intake but I couldn't tell what it was. It was dark out. It was smoking pretty bad, I think it was coolant but im not positive. It was white smoke.
Am I on the right path to thinking its the intake gasket? It's an excuse to buy a cobra intake

Depends on where the leak is. Are you still running the EGR cooler and lines? A coolant leak near the throttle body would not make the idle as choppy as if the leak were into a single cylinder.
I would check for gasket failures that could be external, and get into the intake. Lower manifold, egr, more specifically.
good luck
jason

Synned · Oct 11, 2005

vristang said:
Depends on where the leak is. Are you still running the EGR cooler and lines? A coolant leak near the throttle body would not make the idle as choppy as if the leak were into a single cylinder.
I would check for gasket failures that could be external, and get into the intake. Lower manifold, egr, more specifically.
good luck
jason

Should I do a vacuum test on a vacuum line? Will that tell me if there is an intake manifold leak wherever it is? I'm stil running EGR and everything is still connected.

jrichker · Oct 11, 2005

Synned said:
Should I do a vacuum test on a vacuum line? Will that tell me if there is an intake manifold leak wherever it is? I'm stil running EGR and everything is still connected.

Any working vacuum line is good enough to hook a vacuum gauge to. With a stock cam, you should see 16"-19" of vacuum at 650-725 RPM or 18"-21" at 1000 RPM. More vacuum is always better than less vacuum.

The vacuum gauge will tell you if you have low vacuum, but it won't tell you where the leak is.

Use a squirt can of motor oil to squirt around the mating surfaces of the manifold & TB. The oil will be sucked into the leaking area and the engine will speed up. Avoid using flammable substitutes for the oil such as propane or throttle body cleaner. Fire is an excellent hair removal agent and no eyebrows is not cool...

It is still possible to have a leak and not find it because of the location of the leak. Leaks around the water passage and the underside of the lower intake manifold fall into this category.

89lxsport50 · Oct 11, 2005

Check your throttle body / egr spacer gasket. Open the tb and shine a light inside the intake. Look for coolant in the upper intake. Also look around the outside of the tb gasket and the top of the valve cover for discoloration or signs of moisture. My gasket leaked and created a nice green puddle inside my upper. My first clue was the smell of the exhaust. the first time I replaced the gasket I installed it dry, and it leaked again. The second time I used blue rtv on both sides of the gasket and no leaks so far.

vristang · Oct 11, 2005

Synned said:
Should I do a vacuum test on a vacuum line? Will that tell me if there is an intake manifold leak wherever it is? I'm stil running EGR and everything is still connected.

Not sure if it will tell you anything, but it is easy/quick to do, and can tell alot about the condition of the motor. I don't think it would reflect coolant in the intake charge though.89lxsport50 has good idea with looking inside the TB. Maybe even pulling a few vac lines from the upper could help. If there is coolant in the intake it may drip out of the vac lines?This seems like one of those odball problems that will take some poking around to figure out.Good Luckjason

Synned · Oct 23, 2005

Okay my exhaust is still smelling like coolant and the car still backfires and hesitates. I'm going to run seafom through a vacuum line to see if I can get that smoke again. Smoke was coming from somewhere in the engine bay.

stangnutlx · Oct 23, 2005

Synned said:
Okay my exhaust is still smelling like coolant and the car still backfires and hesitates. I'm going to run seafom through a vacuum line to see if I can get that smoke again. Smoke was coming from somewhere in the engine bay.

Head Gasket?

Synned · Oct 24, 2005

Pass the cylinder balance test...

Synned · Oct 25, 2005

I'm starting to think its EGR/gasket related. There was a puddle of coolant to the right of my distributer a while back that I didn't think anything of. That could be an itnake gasket leak I guess. The EGR valve may also be at fault.

vristang · Oct 25, 2005

Sounds like its time for some old school coolant leak diagnosing... Stick your hand where you think it is leaking, and if your hand gets wet, that's the leak.
I hate having to do crap like that, I always seemed to get burned. but I did find a few coolant leaks that way.

Good luck
Hope you figure it out
Keep us posted
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