Hi,

This forum is great. I hadn't read it in years and should have been.

On a recent roadtrip, my '01 Screw (5.4 l) with 111K miles started missing and the CEL came on flashing. After taking to a service station on the road they replaced a COP and the problem was fixed. Anyway, the mechanic pulled the plug on the bad cylinder and noted that it smelled of coolant. It was clean enough that I did not have him replace it as recommended. (I replaced the plugs at 100K and should have done the COPs as recommended by many on this site.) He thought the coolant might be leaking in the intake manifold. He went on to suggest using some Bar's Stop Leak. I have not done anything yet. The coolant does not seem to be going down, but it is a very dark color. Engine oil looks fine.

Does anyone have suggestion on how to isolate where the coolant might be leaking so I can repair it properly instead of adding the stop leak?

Thanks!

 

What cylinder was it ? 1 0R 5 ? You have to fix that right, you don't have much time.

 

What fast response and intuitive. It was number 5.

 

5four intake gaskets are prone for going bad right up front @ the water jackets. Bad enough that it can actually pit the heads. Coolant is leaching into #5 IMO.

You need to check your coolant for electrolytes as well. You may have one problem contributing to another.

I didn't have the electrolyte disadvantage, but did have bad gaskets and the pitted heads problem two years ago. In fact , I just filled a few more pits in the heads and am waiting for it to cure so I can sand back down. It wasn't that bad this time around. - Heres a pic tho -

jacket/heads/pitted/filled -

 

Thank you so much jbrew!

How do I check for electrolytes? If there are electrolytes, what does it mean.

Do you know if there is a written procedure for replacing the intake gasket?
Should I replace anything else once I get that far into the project?

I certainly hope I don't have any pitting as well.

 

I don't have an 01 procedure. - I have an 02 in the library it looks like. - should be the same. - Give me an email.

 

Goleta- I trust Jbrew filled you in on what electrolysis is and how to check for it. If he didn't (can't imagine that he wouldn't), come on back and he or one of us here will.

 

No , I didn't - Go ahead code58. Multi Meter Method

 

Code58 and jbrew,

I found an older thread that discusses the multi meter test. I will give it a try.

 

Did you get the procedure I sent? Sometimes the 02 -04 DVD gives me problems. In that case , I have to convert to PDF . If all else fails, I fire up the MAC. - It just works

 

jbrew,

The procedure came through just fine. I can see all the drawings and text.

I just checked the voltage in the coolant. It is about 0.12 ignition off and 0.06 ignition on, at idle, and at 2000 rpm. So, It looks like i am somewhat OK from that perspective.

Today, I will go pick up some new gaskets at Kragen as well as radiator flush and new coolant. Since I will have things apart, I will likely change my COPs. I will order them and hopefully I can do the entire job next weekend.

Thanks for the great help! I will report back our success.

 

Great !! Yea, it's hard to tell on this end if it went thru or what you got from it.

Good luck then.

 

jbrew,

I finished the gasket replacement and COPs. It went better than I thought. The instructions you sent were perfect. The gasket surfaces of the heads were very easy to clean and flat. Luckily, I did not have any pitting like you showed in the picture above. I found only two surprises once I got the intake off. There was quite a bit of oil on top of the block. I could not see any obvious source for the oil. The second was one of the boots on the COPs was stained red. All the others were black. My replacement COPs arrived in the mail mid-day at about the time I needed to put them in. (less than a week from Florida to California!) One of them had cracked housing where the electrical connector attaches, but I think the seal will work with it. Tomorrow I get to finish flushing the cooling system and then I should be done. The truck ran a little rough after I finished, but I figured it needs to relearn how to run properly.

Thanks for all the help!

 

Good Job! Which boot was stained RED? 3 or 4 ?

Was there anything in the lower intake ? Oil/ Coolant ?

What kind of shape were the gaskets in up front? Any abnormal ware ?

Shouldn't run that rough, yea maybe it will smooth out.. Keep us posted

 

Hey jbrew,

#7 was stained red.

There was a little oil in the lower intake. Wehen I turned it over and back to clean it a couple of time, I found the cleaned gasket surface kept getting a little oil on it.

The gaskets looked fine. I could not see anything that would have indicated a leak up front.

I will let you know how it runs tomorrow.

Thanks again!