Ok i'm supposed to be getting my car fixed soon. I was loosing a whole lot of coolant fairly fast and then finally one day white smoke started coming out. So I figured blown head gasket. However two mechanics both said they think it's my intake manifold. They said there are a lot of problems with the intake manifolds going out on lt1's? I've never heard this. So could I have a leaking intake manifold? I didnt think the intake manifold had anything to do with coolant. I'm just curious if these two guys have any idea on what they are talking about.

 

There are no coolant passages to the intake manifold. The "leak" in the intake manifold is the RTV strip that is used to seal between the intake manifold and the rear edge of the block. There are only gaskets on tht head/intake faces, and a bead of RTV used at the front and rear edges of the block. The intake "leak" results in air being pulled into the crankcase by the PCV vacuum, or oil blowing out of the leak if you get any pressure buildup due to excessive ring blowby. No coolant involved.

But unlike a Gen 1 SBC, there are no coolant passages from the head to the intake.

 

pull a valve cover off and take a look. if you see a milky yellow substance, i'd be willing to bet you have a blown head gasket.

 

Ok so pretty much there's no way a intake leak could cause me to burn coolant?

 

Correct; an intake leak will cause a vacuum leak or oil drool, but not affect coolant.

 

You need to stay far away from these people.

 

Gah I knew these guys were wrong. It's just like when I got my headers. This one mechanic was telling me how i'd have nothing but problems from headers. He said i'd be pulling them off all the time to fix a leak, of course I didnt listen to him. This was also one of my dads mechanic buddys. Same thing with my coolant loss two of his mechanic friends said it's the intake gasket. One even said he bets 10 to 1 it's the intake manifold. I just laughed. I try to tell my dad but he's so hardheaded.