Thread: Coolant sitting on top of lower intake manifold?

Makes sense in this case, thanks man. Might have to pull the covers and check.

Oh yea the PCV is under the MAP right? That's what I had replaced several years ago in hopes that it would slow oil consumption. It did not. Still not sure how this mist would accumulate in this void between the upper and lower, but if I had the parts in front of me to examine I'd probably figure it out. I was rushed yesterday so I didn't take the time to do this. Hope to pull the lower out tonight and start cleaning things up and swapping gaskets and o-rings. I bought full upper and lower Felpro kits. The lower Felpro gasket only was the "second design" gasket but still made from composite material. I had to get the full kit to get the steel or aluminum gasket base.

Is there a trick to getting the coolant elbow back into the lower w/o damaging the new gaskets if taking the shortcut of not removing the PS pump? Doesn't seem like there would be a lot of wiggle room there to make this happen safely. BTW, I had to redo the elbow job after reading all over the net how the HELP! kit from O'Reilly Auto Parts was the exact same parts as the AC Delco crap from the stealership at a fraction of the cost. They lasted a few months tops IIRC and somehow warped out of shape...not a perfect "L" shape when I removed them though I was extremely cautious installing them. They just had flex to them where as the OEMs are a lot more firm. Luckily I still have a second set of OEMs sitting on my shelf so I can use the one for this job.

Yea its plenty tight but seems doable with a second pair of hands. The two pass. side coolant ports that are blocked off at the lower manifold failed at the top side of the gasket. Looks like the plastic structure failed and allowed the gasket to dip down into the port. I believe I dug the composite pieces out last time I did the elbows and flushed the system out.

I did. Yea I just had applied a small amount of RTV to the o-rings as an extra precaution and had to fight it to remove the lower. I won't bother with it on the new one though. Going to start cleanup and R&R all the o-rings and gaskets so I can reassemble tomorrow night and get the oil changed Sat. I didn't get a single drop of coolant in the valley when pulling so not terribly concerned.

I thought it was funny that up until the lower it was just 9mm and 10mm nuts/bolts and the lower was all 3/8".

THAT's what I wanted to ask last night and forgot all about it, thanks man! Just on the corners then? There are a few odd ball places like this on the Ford modular front / engine / timing covers as well.

I let the dealer do mine 9 years ago cost $600.00 thats was before I joined this forum, now that I see the job I am pissed I did not do it myself, they convineced me this was not like the old engines from the 60-70's I was used too and was a huge complicated job since it was plastic. The rats

Originally Posted by Scottydoggs

only real difference is its got a fuel rail and injectors and a bunch of sensors to remove. once the wire harness and injectors are off its just like the old days.

Well we know that now, don't we.

All done, thanks for all the help guys! I would have ended up with composite gaskets most likely. Was disappointed that the kits didn't include the PCV o-rings. I also discovered that I had been running w/o a t-stat housing gasket for years! No wonder you guys didn't understand wtf I was talking about not being able to run it w/o the t-stat in place. Derp.

I went ahead and used both gaskets, didn't seem like it should be w/o it so I can't imagine it causing any problems...??? I knew of the UIM issue when I got the car thanks to a co-worker who had the same issue, so I made sure to get the aluminum UIM or at least have replaced it right off the bat. I think the long rectangle shaped gasket in the LIM next to the EGR pipe and behind the exhaust pipe was leaking. It looked like hell and there was sludge right there on top of the transaxle.