ok torqued the bolts down again for a third time, i would say only two or three bolts moved this time.....im gonna retorque them one more time before tonight over. then once more in the morning.......then add water and cross my fingers into a pretzel
ok, re torqued it one more time only one bolt budged a tiny bit, crossed my fingers added water and!!!!!!!! DRIP DRIP DRIP....
same spot. so yah i dot know what to do........i did it right this last time with same results. I have no more money or interest in the sob right now.....
And i don't even know where to i start. Obviously the car is gonna sit for a while i have no more stang money and my college fall term is coming around the corner.
im not asking for pitty this is my fault for buying used stuff thinking it would all be ok.....
1)do i pull all the stuff off take it to a shop and have the heads and manifold checked/resurfaced? $$$$$$$$$
2) have just the lower checked/resurfaced? $$
3) buy just a lower risking the same problem,although this idea is the cheapest and easiest its kind of a stupid idea...
4) buy a china cobra upper/lower kit thats brand new. about 380.00......selling the other one, and possibly installing only to find out it wasn't the manifold to begin with?
YAH BASICALLY I NEED A HELP aka.OPINIONS BASED ON EXPERIENCE.
the only plus is i might have to take the valve covers off in which i can repaint them....
This is the all time worse picture, but this is all i have cause right after the picture my camera seems to have called it quits,
it is the in the pass rear near the egr collant passage that was drilled and tapped, its not leaking from that, but on the rear of it, kind of where the manifold touches the head... http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/4880/80899330bz5.jpg
It's not the heads, if the heads got hot of enough to be that warped the head gasket would be toast. you are either doing something really wrong that we can't help you with seeing as we are not there with you or that lower intake is junk. If you are using that much rtv and torqing it that many times and it's still leaking, I'm betting it's the intake. get a new one, and use permatex right stuff to seal the block area, regular black rtv for the coolant passages, also what gasket set where you using?
head gaskets? all that has been replaced, i'm putting on heads and intake? thats why it could be one or the other.......i may be doing something wrong, but its not rocket science and i am torquing it properly, i even used guides to keep the gaskets in place......
i put silicone in the spots i was told to all three times, even put silicon on top and around all the coolant passages all 3 times.... i used the most silicon the 3rd time and silicone oozed out, probably not as much as i would like but it oozed out enough to seal, even if there was a bad surface the silicon should take care of it??????
i was thinking of pulling it again and just laying the manifold down on the heads and see if there is a gap or something, i dunno.....
how should i approach this from cheapest to most expensive....
i could pull it all off take it to a shop or do one at a time, like process of elimination.
Have you checked the fitting in the rear of the intake for EGR coolant line? It hard to see in that area. Might just need to tighten the fitting and/or the hose clamp.
It is in the same location as the leak. It's also shown in your picture.
no its not that that hose/clamp is a tight as possible on a brand new piece, i wish it was the egr thing, my tapping might have messed up the sealing surface underneath but i inspected that....and it also seems fine???
The fitting is also tightly fasten to the manifold?
If you do remove the intake again. Carefully inspect the gaskets for witness marks of improper sealing.
Also, I have had manifold installs leak coolant from too much RTV. You do need a thick (1/4in) layer on front/rear of the block (btw the heads). But, around the coolant ports on the heads, I like to use a pretty thin layer.
Do you have any coolant in the oil? Steam out exhaust? What gaskets are you using?
Just had another thought.
Don't know if it's been mentioned, did you use thread sealer on the bottom studs for the heads? The studs thread into the water jackets. Common place to leak coolant after a head swap. Check the lower heads bolts for any sign of coolant.
ill check the fiiting again but not only wa it screwed in tight it had silicon put on it when put in.......
i can clearly see where its leaking, too much rtv might be the problem this time......
and the third time i did torque really well compared to the other two times but the third time had maybe too much silicone?
but why wouldn't the silicone help u know?
i wouldn't mind trying again, since that is the cheapest way but i want to be sure what the problem is? i cant make bad heads work, but its just weird that it would leak in that one spot only or is it?
i was thinking some new intake manifold bolts with my current intake, then from there i don't know what to do, i would really hate to pull of the heads again, since they sounded good and i got no smoke the for the 2mins i got it running the first time when i found the leak.... then from there ive just been checking the leak by adding coolant and connecting the egr coolant lines with a connector and im only getting water dripping out the place from the picture, which leaks down the bellhousing on the starter etc...
i dont know what to do, i feal like even if i get it to seal it will leak 3k miles down the road..........im really upset which is amking realize i love this car so much, i drive a beater in hopes for this thing, have swapped out the auto and done all this work and investing and i haven't even driven the car more than a couple miles (illegally in my neighborhood cause its never even had a tag,lol...)
I feel for you, and hope you get the thing going, but you did mention one thing that kinda bothers me. In your post where you had 4 options about what to do, in opt 4 you said you would sell the lower. If it is the lower that's bad, would you really sell it to another enthusiast knowing it was a bad piece? If I read that wrong then sorry.
yah i meant,the upper manifold is still good...im not like that, i wold make a paperweight out of it before i sold a bad part....
i hope its just the manifold.... if its the head about how much to have them resurfaced, then im sure you would have to bring the manifold so they can match them up right? but this is where im trying to see if anyone has ahd the same problem in the same area and figured it out?
one thing i forgot to mention was the bolt closest to the leak( the further away bolt when standing in front of the car) didn't budge after it was torqued the first time? and all of the others did at least a little on the second time....also i am using these gasketes with silicon on them and someone mentioned that they could have a reaction.....???
HELP im sorry i have so much info and questions in my post but im a wreck with this problem and i just seem to type an type..... excuse the grammar and etc.