My 95 3.4 engine overheated after driving 2 miles from a cold start . I got it home, replaced the thermostat, and it idled fine for half an hour. On the 5 mile drive to work, it overheated again. I got it home, found some more air in the radiator, curped it a bit, and let it run. I started it up a couple days later, and let it idle. it turns out that the water is leaking out the exhaust. In about 2 minutes, there's a noticeable puddle.

my friend suggested it could be just an intake manifold gasket. I find that a bit hard to believe. If I have to put any money in it, I'd rather do an LT1 swap. Any advice? Could it be as simple as a manifold gasket?

 

overheating usually leads to headgasket replacement. if there is a drip of water coming out of the tailpipe, it might just be condensation that has gathered near the rear of the exhaust system. any liquid from a running engine that is dumped into the exhaust, however, will come out of the tailpipe as smoke (white=coolant and bluish=oil). is there any smoke coming out of the exhaust?

 

Are you sure it is coolant coming out of the tailpipe? Water commonly comes out of the tailpipes as well. If you overheated the car and there is coolant leaking, you more then likely cracked/warped a head or took out a head gasket.How does the condition of the motor oil look?

 

Yeah, it's definitely anitfreeze in the exhaust: it's pink/orange. It doesn't really smoke, it's more like a heavy vapor that's being spit onto the concrete. In a minute, the concrete is sopping wet. The oil is ok too, not milky like you'd expect it to be with a blown head gasket.

I'm not really sure what to do with the car. I can't imagine the intake gasket fixing the issue, and if it doesn't I'm out $30 and a few hours that could be spent on a swap. Likewise, I'm not too keen on replacing a head gasket to find that I have a cracked head. Any thoughts?

 

Scratch the LT1 idea and go for the LT5
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Corve...QQcmdZViewItem

 

That would be a cool swap. Too bad parts are hard to find for those though and that particular motor is in need of a rebuild.

 

I always best to check the easy stuff before diving in... I just pull the intake; it can't hurt, I mean what is the worse case scenario?? you spend a few hours playing in the garage and if you'r going to end up doign the swap it's just like you did the prep work with all the electrical sensor crap. For the head gasket I would expect milky oil, so from what your saying above it's probbaly not, but a quick compression test should answer that question


wishing you an inexpensive fix