Upper intake manifold leak

Tiny
TRINITY58
  • MEMBER
  • 1998 FORD EXPLORER
  • 4.0L
  • V6
  • 2WD
  • MANUAL
  • 224,764 MILES
Would the upper intake manifold leak antifreeze? Having rough idle problems. Found leak at EGR valve, have yet to replace. I have a little standing antifreeze around fuel injectors, that looks like may be caused by leaking heater hose, and is just blowing back on top of the intake manifold? Pictures attached. Vin X
Friday, February 15th, 2019 AT 7:33 PM

5 Replies

Tiny
SCGRANTURISMO
  • MECHANIC
  • 4,897 POSTS
Hello,

Coolant loss from the return heater core sounds about right. I have included in the diagrams below a step by step troubleshooting flowchart from Ford for coolant loss. Please go through it and let us know what you find. Also, if you have a leak at the EGR tube on the throttle body then yes it would cause a poor idle. This would be letting unmetered air into the system.

Thanks,
Alex
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Saturday, February 16th, 2019 AT 1:47 AM
Tiny
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Hello Alex,
Thank you for the fast reply! That old hose had a hairline crack on the backside that I could not see. It's probably the original hose. Part is ordered, along with a new fan. Many cracks on the hub of that plastic fan. I am surprised it has not broken up and ruined the radiator!

Is that EGR tube permanently attached to the upper intake manifold? One of the EGR mounting bolts is sheared off inside the mounting bracket, and it's too tight a spot for me to get some vice grips around the back of that broken bolt to thread the remainder of the bolt on thru, or try using a bolt extractor. It looks to me like there is some blue coating on the broken bolt? The other bolt seems to be stainless steel. Picture attached.
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Sunday, February 17th, 2019 AT 2:17 PM
Tiny
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Hello,

Glad to hear you have the coolant leak figured out. The EGR Valve bolts are going to have to come out one way or another. Another option for you is to drill the old bolt out and then tap the hole to get another bolt in there. Let us know what happens.

Thanks,
Alex
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Sunday, February 17th, 2019 AT 8:49 PM
Tiny
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Hello Alex, sorry for the lapse in getting back to you. It turned out that the coolant leak was also coming from the (lower) intake manifold. I replaced both upper and lower intake manifold gaskets, fuel rail gasket, injector o-rings, the o-ring at the EGR tube going up to the upper intake, o-rings at the throttle body and IAC valve, PVC tube, put in new plugs and wires and fixed the broken off bolt at the EGR valve mount by knocking off the nut that was spot welded to the backside and just used a bolt and nut with washer and a lock washer. The engine runs like a banshee under load but still idles rough. I acquired a BlueDriver OBDII scan tool, and it's showing P0133, O2 Sensor Circuit Slow Response Bank 1 Sensor 1. I did a live data scan on O2 sensor voltage. 0 volts on ALL O2 sensors. Since the coolant issue is fixed, I'll try to figure out how to add fixed to this thread and start another one for the oxygen sensor issue. Thank you so much for the diagrams and your help!
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Friday, April 19th, 2019 AT 4:47 PM
Tiny
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Hello again,

Great job! That is what we like to hear. And just between you and me, O2 sensors can be easily poisoned by things like antifreeze and fuel. Have a good day.

Thanks,
Alex
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Friday, April 19th, 2019 AT 6:39 PM

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