Finally got around to replacing my ball joints/upper control arms... and feeling really good about my truck.


Then a week later I noticed the heater output was low. Popped the hood and can see where I'm leaking coolant on the cross over tube connection on the passenger side. Put coolant/water in and heat output returned.


Unless my guess is wrong... it looks like the intake manifold has to come off to get to all of the bolts that hold the crossover on. I don't really have time to yank it that far apart at the moment. Really hate to put in some stop leak, but if it'll buy me a couple weeks...

 

Probably have a cracked manifold. Look down in the valley of the engine under the intake and pull one coil pack and look down in the plug well. To remove the cross over you have to remove the whole intake manifold.

 

After looking at intake manifolds online and how they are when upside down... it appears that the leak is where the crossover tube and manifold bolt on that side... Will get one ordered and monitor coolant level. Have about 300 miles total over a ten day period to drive before I have time to take it apart.

 

Which engine do you have?

 

It's the 5.4

 

Your intake manifold is cracked.

Straight forward fix.

 

Yup, just order a new manifold (~$160 on rock auto for the Dorman).
A beginner can do it in a day. Just take your time and watch a few videos before doing it.

If you have to drive it, you could get by with loosening the radiator cap. This will prevent pressure buildup and leaking, but will decrease the performance of the cooling system. Not a long term solution, and not something I would do if I had a long drive, but it works for getting around for a few days till you can get it taken care of.

 

Was going offshore fishing this weekend, but cancelled due to rough seas... Amazon can get me one for a good price by Saturday. Guess I'll just fix it right instead of using stop leak.

 

Looks like the price on Amazon dropped since I got mine a few months ago.
They were around $180 on Amazon vs $150 on Rock Auto.
2 day shipping for just a few more does make it a better deal though.

If you have not changed your spark plugs, now is the time to do it, you have easier access to the plugs with the manifold off, and all the work besides taking the plugs out is already done (look at ~ 15:50 in the video, easy to see all the spark plug holes).
I would also get a can of carb/intake cleaner and clean the throttle body to make sure there are no plugged passages for the EGR or IAC since you have that off also.

The video TNSean posted was the one I watched before I did it. It cleared up any questions I had.
One thing that I did when doing mine was to remove the hood latch. I hate that thing poking me when I lean over it. Some just sit in the engine bay (like the video) but I am getting too old and fat to do that.

 

You don't want to use stop leak. That stuff will mess up your whole cooling system.