Hi all,

I recently replaced the UIM (complete part from delphi) and LIM gaskets. Thought I had her running well, when she started to overheat (250). I rebled the coolant system and noticed she was about a gallon low. This morning I noticed lots of steam coming out of the tailpipe.

Any idea where the coolant might be coming from?

Any idea what I did wrong during the assembly? I used a torque wrench on all the bolts... I did not use any RTV anywhere...

Thanks in advance for everyone'* help. This is an awesome forum...

Your suppose to use RTV at the joints where the lower manifold gaskets meet the small strip gaskets. But this wouldn't account for the engine drinking coolant out the exhaust.

Check your oil ASAP.

IIRC you also use RTV in the upper corners of the LIM gaskets to hold them in place. It'* possible that it became misaligned when re-installing causing an imperfect seal and therefore coolant leaking into the other ports.

Mike,

I neglected to mention I did use RTV on the lower small gasket strips.

yutzybrian, That I did not do. How can I tell if that'* my problem?

Any chance it could be something with the UIM?

coolant goes through both, if yours is the same as my 98, there is a couple ports in the lower that have to seal to the upper, if not it will leak into all the cylinders. what values did you use? if you tighten both too tight or too little it would leak. if too tight it would warp

Going off memory upper was like 81 in/lbs and the lower was 34 ft-lbs???

I think its time to pull both of them off to verify the work. No sense sitting around guesstimating what'* going on or what happened.

Agreed Mike,

I'm just wondering what I should look for. If the problem is in
the UIM, I'd rather stop there than to tear out the LIM for no reason.

Basically, what should I look for?

Just inspect for anything out of the ordinary.

Let'* not jump the gun, yet....

Were you burning coolant before the job? If yes, you could have residual coolant in the exhaust......it could be just burning off....I have finished work on 3.8'*, and the vehicle would not start, because it couldn't breathe, because the exhaust was full of coolant......one was so bad, I had to put the front legs of my lift under the car(leaving the rear legs off), and lift the front of the car to let the exhaust drain....

As for being a quart low, if the system was not properly burped, and you have the rad cap on, you will have an air pocket, which can restrict coolant flow, and cause the vehicle to overheat......

So before taking anything apart, I would make sure the engine is properly burped......run the vehicle to normal operating temp......let it cool down and then check the level in the radiator.....top off if necessary...do this until the radiator remains full.....double check coolant fan operation, and see if the car still overheats....