I have an '04 GTO 6m with the LS1. Over the past few months I've occasionally gotten a whif of coolant while driving but it hasn't needed any added. Iasked the shop to check the h2o pump when they did the idler pullies and serp belt, but they said it wasn't leaking.
I took it off the road for the last 2 weeks getting ready for a new clutch and tires. Started it last night and it half-cranked and died. Started it again and it ran rough and made awful clattering noises. "berkeley me," I think, and shut her down quickly.
Based on the exhaust smell last night, my Dx is leaking intake manifold gasket and an engine full of coolant. Car never ran hot and the oil was always healthy looking, so I doubt a headgasket, but could be that instead.
What have I probably hurt trying to start it? An intake reseal and clutch are going to be expensive enough, but I can swing it. It will be a hard hit if I've bent or broken any internals though. Thoughts? Condolences?
Intake gaskets on those motors are simple. They are just individual O-ring seals.
Only leak I have ever seen on LS's is the passenger side water pump gasket leaks. $5 for new gaskets and I lost the coolant smell. Look for a rusty coolant trail on the block.
If you think it's full of coolant, it will either show on the dipstick or if you remove all the spark plugs and crank it over and it all comes out.
i'm pretty sure there is no coolant in the intake manifold on the LS engines.. if there is coolant in the oil, it's not coming from there- it would have to be a head gasket or cracked head- and it would show on the dipstick.
i agree with the water pump assessment- i traced an almost invisible coolant leak on my brother's 5.3 powered '01 SIlverado to a water pump gasket that took about an hour to replace and cost a total of about $20 including the gaskets and new coolant.. the truck was 11 years old and had almost 100,000 miles on it and the factory gasket had a slight defect in the way the silicone was molded to the steel that eventually gave out and caused a small leak.. it could go thru about a half a gallon every couple of thousand miles before, but it's been a year and he hasn't had to add coolant since then..
easy breezy beautiful cover girl. Pop intake manifold off, pop out old gaskets, pop in new ones, put manifold back on. Clean gunk out while youre at it.
Just checked the oil, no milkshake. I was afraid the LS might have shared the 3800's plastic intake woes, so I will look in another direction. I'm chicken to crank it again so will cross my fingers and pray the engine isn't as hurt as it acts.
Yeah man, LS engines are dry intakes, there's no coolant in there.
Unfortunately, it sounds like you did way worse than that. Blown head gasket maybe?
Sound like its time for a cooling system pressure test.
