FinallyOffRoad

I just got done rebuilding the top end of my 3.0 V6. I used all new head bolts, gaskets, everything and I did everything according to the manual as far as torque patterns, specs, order of installation. Mostly. The only pattern I didn't follow was for the lower intake bolts. I bolted down the four corners first and then worked around kind of randomly. I didn't pay much attention to it, because I figured it would be okay since it's just air going through it, but now I think that's where I messed up. Before my rebuild, I didn't have compression in cylinders 5 and 6 and all 6 intake valves were pretty leaky, 5 and 6 worse than others, so I had my heads completely rebuilt and machined professionally. Now that I have it together and running, it runs great for the most part, definitely much better than before, it has some vacuum issues and the main thing is the coolant that's leaking from just about everywhere. I drove it for about ten minutes and noticed it was overheating and steaming, so I looked under the hood and saw that there was coolant pouring out of something above the water pump and somewhere on the passenger backside of the engine. It was also steaming and bubbling out of the intake where the injectors sit. Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to see if anyone knew if my problem is just the intake gasket or if I'll have to replace the head gaskets again. I also did notice on both sets of head gaskets I got, both of them covered up a couple of the coolant passages on the block, is that normal?

MudHippy

Oh boy. What did you go and do? Probably no way to tell without tearing it all back apart again. FYI the lower intake gasket is not just for air. And BTW if you do everything according to the manual these things do not happen. Hate to break it to you. But you definitely screwed something up.

I can't tell you about the head gaskets with them installed. A little late for that. I have no idea what you have on there. Or what mistake you might have made installing them.

FinallyOffRoad

True true true. I'm really hoping it's just the intake gasket and I won't have to tear all that much apart. I for sure did not follow the manual for the lower intake, so I'll take it back off and torqued it back down following the correct bolt pattern. Think I'll need to get new gaskets?