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Car Forum / Driving, Maintenance, Tuning / Maintenance and Repair / January 2007

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1999 Suburban Intake leak:

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Bush - 14 Jan 2007 16:54 GMT
HI the intake manifold is leaking Dexcool in  my buddies 1999 Chevy
Suburban 5.7 L vin R engine. Any idea as to repair costs or book time
for this job? Should the plastic plenum be replaced at the same time?
Thanks,

Bush
HLS@nospam.nix - 14 Jan 2007 17:02 GMT
> HI the intake manifold is leaking Dexcool in  my buddies 1999 Chevy
> Suburban 5.7 L vin R engine. Any idea as to repair costs or book time
> for this job? Should the plastic plenum be replaced at the same time?
> Thanks,

I dont have flat rate on this, but as a rough indication, they replaced the
plastic plenum on our Buick for $350 and change.  The dealership originally
started out at $7-800 estimated, but ate some of the cost for good will.

I doubt your Sub would be enormously different.
aarcuda69062 - 14 Jan 2007 18:35 GMT
> HI the intake manifold is leaking Dexcool in  my buddies 1999 Chevy
> Suburban 5.7 L vin R engine. Any idea as to repair costs or book time
> for this job? Should the plastic plenum be replaced at the same time?
> Thanks,
>
> Bush

Labor time is around 4 hours.  The upper plenum does not need to
be replaced, matter of fact, it doesn't even need to be removed
from the lower manifold unless there is cause to do so.
A good Fel-Pro gasket set for this job runs about $150.00 list.
It comes with all the gaskets needed to complete the job and the
gaskets are of a better design that is not subject to the same
type of failure as the OEMs.
Do NOT allow the fuel injectors to dry out, cap the fuel line
fitting on the fuel rail as soon as they're disconnected, if the
injectors are not kept wet, they will stick and cause a missfire.
Distributor indexing is very important, especially if you don't
have a scan tool that reads cam sensor off-set. IT HAS to go back
in EXACTLY as it was before disassembly.
Replace the heater hose disconnect with a replacement from Dorman
while the manifold is off.
I'd also replace the water pump because if you're at the mileage
where most manifold leaks occur, the water pump is likely to
begin leaking shortly.
Flush and refill the coolant with the proper coolant.
Bush - 15 Jan 2007 21:36 GMT
Well my buddy brought his Suburban to me so I guess I'll do the job
for him. I found the full gasket set at Car Quest for $56, but if the
plenum can stay attached, do I need the full set?
Also what's the best way to index the distrubutor, #1 and crank at
TDC?

Thanks,

Bush

>> HI the intake manifold is leaking Dexcool in  my buddies 1999 Chevy
>> Suburban 5.7 L vin R engine. Any idea as to repair costs or book time
[quoted text clipped - 22 lines]
>begin leaking shortly.
>Flush and refill the coolant with the proper coolant.
aarcuda69062 - 15 Jan 2007 22:05 GMT
> Well my buddy brought his Suburban to me so I guess I'll do the job
> for him. I found the full gasket set at Car Quest for $56,

Reinz-Victor or Fel-Pro?  You really don't want to use anything
other than the Fel-Pro gaskets on this job, especially for a
buddy, especially if you don't want to do it over.

> but if the
> plenum can stay attached, do I need the full set?

You'll need at least one rocker cover gasket and the distributor
base gasket, fuel line O-rings are a good idea, so it all depends
on whether the rest of this stuff is in stock and how it prices
compared to the MIS set.

> Also what's the best way to index the distrubutor, #1 and crank at
> TDC?

Exactly.
Bush - 16 Jan 2007 00:06 GMT
The Car Quest sets have been mostly Victor Reinz so I will seek out a
Fel-Pro set tomorrow. There was a lot of controversy over GM gaskets
and Decool and apparently Texaco (Dexcool) lost quite a class action
lawsuit, but it was the plastic gaskets after all. A couple of Techs
recommended new intake bolts and locktite blue however I think that
this is going to the other extreme.

Thank you so much for your help and I'll be sure to change the water
pump at the same time. I'll let you know how I make out.

Have a great one!

Bush

>> Well my buddy brought his Suburban to me so I guess I'll do the job
>> for him. I found the full gasket set at Car Quest for $56,
[quoted text clipped - 15 lines]
>
>Exactly.
shiden_kai - 16 Jan 2007 00:39 GMT
> The Car Quest sets have been mostly Victor Reinz so I will seek out a
> Fel-Pro set tomorrow. There was a lot of controversy over GM gaskets
> and Decool and apparently Texaco (Dexcool) lost quite a class action
> lawsuit, but it was the plastic gaskets after all. A couple of Techs
> recommended new intake bolts and locktite blue however I think that
> this is going to the other extreme.

You do not need the new bolts, but the blue loctite is absolutely
necessary!  The torque on the intake manifold bolts is very low, the
loctite makes sure they don't back out.

By the way, what I do for the distributor "indexing", is to simply
mark where the dist cap points before removing it....there are
two ribs on the cap that you can lay a screwdriver on and scribe
marks on the firewall that line up with these two ribs...then remove
the cap and scribe a mark somewhere..anywhere that the rotor
points to.  When you re-install the distributor, you should be able
to start  say.....45 degrees counterclockwise from where the
rotor should point and it should drop right in.  If you cannot get
the distributor to drop all the way in......you might need to slide
a screwdriver down the hole and turn the oil pump drive shaft
a bit to line up with the slot in the bottom of the dist. Once the
dist is in, put the cap on, rotate the dist until your original marks
line up and you should be good to go. Sounds more complicated
then it is.

Ian
sdlomi2 - 16 Jan 2007 01:07 GMT
> The Car Quest sets have been mostly Victor Reinz so I will seek out a
> Fel-Pro set tomorrow. There was a lot of controversy over GM gaskets
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
>
> Bush

   Hey, Bush, I'm sure you will do a thorough job of diagnosing the source
of the leak.  We've seen several man. gaskets replaced where it was not
needed--mainly because these engines had such a reputation.  As you probably
know better than I, this coolant leak can come from several sources.
Pontiac-GMC almost removed mine, under warr., on an '03 Sonoma 4.3 when all
wrong was a t'stat housing/gasket leaking!  Luck to you.  s
whalen.jim@gmail.com - 21 Jan 2007 17:00 GMT
Good luck on that job.  Last one I did was on 70's 350 wow have things
changed.
I too am faced with the leaking intake manifold on a 99 gmc suburban.
I think mine is leaking from the front just below and to the right of
the t-stat housing,  unfortunately I pretty sure it the intake gasket
and not the T-stat, dry as a bone up there.  The leak has gotten a bit
worse, brought it to a mechanic who replaced the water pump which I'm
sure had failed, fluid everywhere....
I am now at the point of deciding wether to fix it or dump it.  I've
got ~120k on it now and it's had the fuel pump done, decent tires.
One of the existing problems is during the warmer months it stumbles at
idle when in gear but at a stop, put it in park and it runs smooth.  I
wonder if this could be related to the leaking manifold gasket, as in
it's leaking interally too.  The only other thin I can figure might be
causing problems is the remote start, astroflex/start mv801, the
install was obviously a butcher job, as I've traced the wires, one went
to the coil and was just twited on an taped, no solder...
I also see that the temp doesn't get over 150 what's the normal t-stat
open temp?
 
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