5.3L cylinder head. Which side should be normal?

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solli5pack

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I wonder if coolant is getting into the head some how and steam cleaning the passenger side.
That's exactly what happens. If you're intermittently low on coolant and have no evidence of an external leak then there's only one other place it can go. Also my motor passed the cooling system pressure test. I can also guess that on mine coolant was bypassing the head gasket when the engine was hot. Look under your oil filler cap for any evidence of coolant/oil sludge.
 

Larryjb

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Do you STILL have a coolant leak? Maybe the clean valve train was from a previously fixed leak. If you had any significant amount of coolant in the oil after the change, it would be sludgy, but not milky (if you have Dexcool). The coolant detected in the oil may have been from some remaining coolant sitting in the valve train or elsewhere. With what I am seeing here, I am strongly suspecting the coolant leak was fixed.

I'd purchase or rent coolant leak tester and pressurize the system with the engine cool. You should not lose any pressure (or very little) overnight.

Seeing how clean that valve train was, I would have expected a big leak. If you are not losing any coolant now, I wouldn't add any coolant fix stuff just now. I'd watch the coolant level carefully after doing the pressure test I mentioned.
 

Tonyrodz

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I'm going to try the coolant leak fix products. A quick fix for now and I'll keep monitoring the engine oil with analysis reports. If this fixes it then great. If not then head gasket replacement.
I used the AC Delco coolant tabs in my Express van. I'd occasionally needed to add coolant. Worked great, never added coolant again.
 

West 1

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I agree, looks like the passenger head has been replaced but you say you have owned it for the last 150,000 miles and it now has 190,000?
 
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