Chevy 350 Intake

[bbranstetter]

Brian L.
Anthony

My truck is a 1995 with the 350 and 221,000 miles This must have been a very early 95 because mine did not come with dex-cool however my Dad's 95 chevy pickup did. This is the second truck of this vintage that I've done intake gaskets on, one with dex-cool and one without, both being run on there respective 'factory fluids'. This makes me think that the real problem is actualy the temp characteristces between the aluminum intake and the iron heads. Or at least it's a thought I've often had.

The biggest problem with dex cool is that its misrepresented as a high milage coolant. It maybe capable of going a long time but there is still foundry sand, and other debris that collects in the system over time and there is just no filtering system to take it out, short of the old fashioned drain and change method. Go ahead leave the dex cool but use the same service intervels that you would use with the old green stuff. jmho.

 

[digger]

Brian,
They dint fix the intake gasket problem until 2000, My 1999 Tahoe is and always has sucked oil through the intake and so does every other 5.7 chevy put in those trucks.

 

[bcook]

Brian,

I have a 1997 K1500 Suburban with the Vortec 350 in it, with (at the time) 142,xxx miles.

Christmas weekend 2006, it decided to puke the right side intake gasket at the front crossover port. Since the distributor is the 'new fangled' electronic/computer style, there was no way I could change the gaskets myself...the distributor MUST be set with the proper computerized equipment...$560 later, it's as good as new, with the green antifreeze in it.

I have been told by several mechanics, that the Dex-Cool deteriorates the plastic intake gaskets. The torque on the intake bolts is pretty minor, so that the iron heads, and aluminum intake can jive a little easier. However this is once again hard on the gaskets. So you end up with brittle plastic, and room for some flexing...and a crack develops. All of the mechanics have told me that it usually happens right around 140,000 miles. I guess I was lucky, I went another 2,000+ miles before it happened to me

 

[bbranstetter]

Ditto on the oil thing, my egr ports are plugged. Where is the carbontetrachloride when you need it? Dang eco freaks. LOL.

Guess I'll be visiting the napa hot tank.

 

[rwilke]

Charlie P.,
What did Chebbie do differently with the intakes on the 2000 5.7 engines?
Ryan W

 

[blanasa]

Brian B
If you got 220,000 miles I guess that you can't really complain. The ones that fail at work (coolant leak from intake) have a lot less miles than that. From 40K and up. Of course in fleet use on the marine terminal, there are considerably more hours on the engine than the mileage would represent. Still, it's not a small job and you're lucky that you can do it yourself. I'd hate to pay that labor bill at the GM dealer. Brian L

 

[rchristensen]

My intake manifold gasket just let loose on my 95 GMC 350 with 60,000 miles on it.

 

[bbranstetter]

Brian L.

Nope, certainly not complaining about 221,000. I'm selling the truck so I really couldn't justify having to pay to have the work done, just elbow grease more than anything. I had thought about selling it as is but that just didn't seem right, I know its a real good running pickup and thats the way its going to be sold.

 

[tschweizer]

A Chevy leaking?? Intake gaskets? Front axle seal? Water pumps? Oil pans?? At least they don't rust underneath

 

[rwilke]

Travis,
Now you know that it CAN'T RUST because of all that oil & gear lube dripping and seeping all over the poor thing!

Ryan W

 

[tschweizer]

Let's not forget the $500 fuel pump. I used to be a Chevy fan.

 

[bbranstetter]

Mine has been pretty clean. Did replace the water pump last year though, had to put a gasket kit in the oil cooler adaptor a couple of years ago. This thing is the worst for exahust hardware, broken exhaust manifold bolts, collector gaskets (twice !), springs rotted away, studs rotted off, drivers side manifold cracked, O2 sensor seized in the bung............ The exhaust for this truck sucks! The only thing left original is the passanger side manifold.

 

[kmoe]

That's funny. It used to be that the passenger side exhaust manifold was the one to warp or crack.

 

[bcook]

Ahhhhhhhhhh, lets not get started on the bashing thing...I have a list a mile long of stuff I had to fix on 2 different FORD complete POS's I've had!

 

[dfrisk]

BILL - As a general rule anything newer will be WAY better than anything Older.... 35 yrs ago My favorite past time was trunk & hood both open wrenching on the '70 Chevy Nova I had (I got it in '73 so it wasn't THAT old. If it would have been as complex as most cars today it would have been totally worthless & unreliable. This car was manual steering, manual brakes, no A/C, 3-on-the-floor, little Muncie...open rearend. No air pump, EGR, EFI, just a simple little Rochester 2-bbl and a PCV valve.
So then STUPID stuff happens....rear leaf springs crack & break, fuel pump dies....accelerator pump in carb eats itself, rockerarm studs bend or pull out of the heads, four year old body by Fisher dissolves in water, Rusts. Front sealed beam headlights lasted about 6 weeks, I carried spares in the trunk next to the case of oil....the little 307 burned a quart of oil every 150-175 miles. Didn't leak oil...the valve guides were shot and it chewed up valve stem seals in days. Car had three clutches in two years. New ball joints & tie rod ends....the paint cracked & hazed and peeled off in sheets because of the galvanized rocker panels, etc.

I tried another GM car back in '99.....things haven't changed much...Car started falling apart on the test drive!

 

[eford]

I liked my old 86 c-10. Good truck, did alot of work to it myself. All vehicles have their pros and cons. I'm a Ford guy for obvious reasons, I can work on them.

 

[bcook]

Well, in the spirit of fairness.

1980 Pinto, 4cyl, auto trans. Bought it when I was 16...my first car.
The exhaust fell off at the manifold...reason was the manifold broke in half. Going down the road at about 50mph, and the hood flies up, and wraps itself around the windshield..the hood latch broke. The drivers side door cracked 6" long in the upper front corner behind the side mirror. With no warning, smoke pours out the exhaust, and the engine dies....repair shop says piston #3 is broke in half, and piston #4 is non-existant. Pay $$$ to get different engine installed. 'New' engine supposedly has 30,000 miles...it lasts 400 miles, and the cam breaks. Get another engine installed. Transmission grenades...pay big $$ again. Lower left ball joint breaks, and leaves me stranded. After dumping $2,400 into that POS in 2 years, I could only get $200 out of it!


1983 LTD II 200ci inline 6cyl, auto trans.
Wiring harness shorts out inside the dash. Heater core pops a leak. Transmission cross member was rusted damn near in two. Blower motor takes a dump. Lower right ball joint breaks. Transmission loses reverse. Base of carburator cracks. Water pump went out. Heater hose gets a pin hole in it.

Both of those cars had less than 60,000 miles on them when I bought them. The Pinto spent more time getting fixed than it did on the road. I unloaded the LTD when it had less then 90,000 miles on it.

The van I drive for work was bought brand new.
2002 E250 V6, auto trans.
From day one, the front end was seriously out of alignment! The mechanic couldn't adjust it far enough with the factory adjustments, so specialized parts had to be bought and installed to get the damn thing to within specs. The paint on the rear bumper was falling off in big patches by 5,000 miles, and the bumper had to be blasted and repainted. At close to 12,000 miles, the left rear brake started sticking...but that stopped when I was putting the brakes on for a stop sign, and the LR inside brake pad exploded/broke away from it's mounting bracket. The pedal went to the floor instantly after the BANG...I had to pump the hell out of them to get the pressure back up so I could get stopped! At about 28,000 miles it started coughing and stumbling badly when leaving a stop sign/stop light. That took 2 different trips to the mechanic to cure. Coil was going out, 1 plug wire was cracked, and 1 spark plug was severely burnt to the point the electrode was almost gone. None of the mechanics could answer why! The paint is peeling between the left tail light and the left rear door, and of course it's rusting. The back bumper that was re-done at the dealers body shop now has big bubbles showing up under the paint...guess what the bubbles are.. If I don't park the van where the parking lot/ground is 'level' the body must get into a 'twist', and the back doors drag/rub so bad, that I have to slam them to get them to shut. It now has a whopping 51,xxx miles on it.

On the flip side, we bought our 1989 G20 Chevy conversion van 350ci auto trans. right at 6.5 years ago, with 58,xxx miles on it.

We had the brakes done when we bought it. I had to replace the fan switch, and we had the ball joints replaced and front brakes done again last summer. Other than that it has been just basic maintenance stuff like tune ups, oil changes, and 1 set of tires. It is now 18 years old, and has 132,xxx miles on it...there is a little rust just starting to show in front of the rear tires...looks like it's happening where the conversion company bolted the running boards on. It has never had stupid stuff go wrong/break, it has never broke down, and never needed a tow truck!

The 1997 Suburban has needed just normal stuff, except for the intake gasket deal, but that was at 142,xxx miles.

So all the Ford lovers can just have them.

If it don't have a BOWTIE on the grill, it ain't gonna get parked in my garage!

 

[kmoe]

I used to work at a place from '97 to '03 that bought whatever vehicle they could get the best deal on and suited the needs of the job. We had Ford, and Chevy 3/4 ton vans in service. They all had some problem or another. The rear u-joint in the '95 Chevy ( old body style) would need replaced every 30k or so (about once a year) The Ford vans would pop head gaskets and eat brake rotors. I was most pleased with the GMC Savannah vans, until the fuel pumps started failing as soon as the vehicles reached 60k miles. The van I had was the second failure. I got stuck about 45 minutes from the nearest town, going uphill on a 6% grade in a blind corner, with no shoulder to coast onto. It made for a bad day.

 

[bbrigham]

Wild bill, ya got it all wrong from a mechanics point of view, them fords have mad me a lot of money when I was in the buisness. Didn't make much on Chevys or Dodges.

Bren

 

[bbranstetter]

I think that anyone with brand preferance ends up figuring out what is good and what to stay away from. For instance, I would never buy a half ton GM truck that had a 305 with the 200R4 transmission(no overdrive lock out). That thing was a piece of junk from front to back and thats if it never towed anything. Get the same truck with a 350 and a bigger tranny, no problems. All of them have built bad combinations its just knowing which ones before your stuck with it.