'99, 150, 4x4, 120k miles, CA truck.

I have coolant steam in the exhaust and rust on the outside of plugs 1-4 so I figured I could handle pulling the intake manifold and hope to find crappy gaskets.

The gaskets don't look terrible but the inside of the intake from the throttle body valve back is wet with coolant and the sheet metal box under the manifold is half full of coolant.

Number 1 plug looked the worst and #1's intake port is bright and shiny while all the others are black.

Is there supposed to be coolant up in the air side of the manifold!?

Any help would be appreciated, the job situation is not good and being afoot isn't a good thing.


BTW, I meant to say go easy on me, I know FEs pretty good but not this bugger!

 

So a little more info, in trying to figure out where the coolant is coming from aside from a crack.

There is a rubber hose that comes off the water jacket part of the manifold in the front between the alternator and t-stat housing. This line goes to the passenger side of the throttle body and connects to 2 other lines.

The hose fitting at the manifold is unrestricted - just a straight shot through (remember this is to the coolant passage) and the other end, at the throttle body, it is unrestricted as well - open to the vacuum of the manifold.

Now I'm no engineer, but if there is pressurized coolant on one end of that hose and a vacuum at the other, how can there not be coolant in the intake?

Could someone with a book take a look at that fitting in the water jacket of the manifold and see what it's called, perhaps it's supposed to have a check valve inside that's gone AWOL?