I have been loosing coolant rapidly but I dont see any external leaks from my 98 V6, my car is running very sluggishly it stalls out and theres a really bad miss on Cylinder 6. I already have had the oxygen sensor, fuel injector on #6, and spark plugs and wires changed very recently!

One day i opened the hood while the car was running and I saw there is a water leak coming from somewhere near the top of the engine presumably thats where my coolant is going..

I decided to do a quick search online and found out that it could be my intake manifold gasket leaking that could cause it to run real sucky.

How would I know for sure that it is my intake manifold gasket leaking???

 

Check right under the throttle body to see if the L shaped plastic elbow is leaking. These get brittle, crack and leak. About $5 for a set of them and a couple hours of work to put them in. You can't see it from the top but you should be able to feel it.

 

Ok. would it cause my car to overheat? and cause it to misfire and the rest of the symptoms im having?

 

oh yea. do you have a picture for me to look at?

 

You want to do a pressure test of the coolant system. If you search I posted a youtube video a few weeks back on how to do it.

This is the part Duck was talking about. As a general rule it will not cause a miss. Most intake leaks will not cause a miss because they leak coolant to the outside of the motor. the shinny part is where the water pump mounts on.



Lose of coolant with no leak and a miss that started around the same time 90% of time will end up head gasket.

 

Well, it could cause it to over heat if the coolant got low enough but misfiring, no. Have you had the radiator pressure test to see if it might be a leaky head gasket? If you are getting water in the cylinders, it will cause it to run like crap and misfire. I don't have a pic but Gorn posted one awhile back on a thread. Maybe he will see this and post it again.

LOL! I guess he posted it while I was trying to type!

 

ok thanks for the picture. But I am having a leak outside of the motor though

 

ohh crap head gasket sounds terrible. I hope it isnt that. But could it be a leaking intake manifold gaskeT? You can see a leak just dont know from where

 

Which side do you see the leak on and at the front or back? Do you see any yellowish/green stain on the intake manifold around where it bolts to the block?

 

If you can not find where the coolant is leaking from you should do the pressure test. Most of the time a cold engine with pressure will leak more then a hot engine with pressure. This would make it easier to find. THe only way to pressurise a cold system is a pressure tester. If you can find the leak fix it first then do the pressure test. You can borrow the tool from Autozone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgxbPHX-W_M