Coolant Consumption

[foxracer025]

Alright guys, I'm new here to the forum and thought I would get some input on my 04 Z71 Tahoe that picked up in November last year. Here is the details:

Got a decent deal for a 2004 Z71 Tahoe with the 5.3L vin Z with 166k on it. Super clean rig inside and out, thing runs like a champ. The bad thing though is I noticed I had to add coolant at what seemed like an alarming rate. A local shop in town said they would diagnose it for free so I was like why not.

Shop pulled the valve cover and said whoever had the Tahoe before me didn't change the oil like they should have and noticed some buildup. He also said that there was a small crack in the shoulder of the head. So they buttoned it up and gave me a quote of $5800 out the door for parts and labor to install a jasper reman engine with 100k mile warranty.

Now I'm not a mechanic but I am mechanically inclined so I have been monitoring the fluids closely. The oil has not been getting foamy or discolored at all. They sell that liquid copper stuff that you can dump into the coolant and it really seems to have helped with the consumption of coolant. I've only had to add 8oz in 3 weeks. Now I know that probably wasn't the best idea but I figured if the engine is going to blow up gotta try something.

With the engine in this condition would it be road worthy of say driving across the country over 5 days? I plan on moving from the east coast to the west coast at the end of this year and am wondering if I should just have the engine replaced before I make the journey.

Anybody else have this coolant consumption problem before the engine went?

Thanks for the input.

 

[FrankU]

Check the intake manifold gasket first.

 

[foxracer025]

Should I use the brake clean method around the intake to check for a leak?

 

[YukonXL04]

Well worst case according to them is just a cracked head... So replace just try messed up head.
. Save some money. Just making sure but have you noticed it leaking out anywhere?

 

[foxracer025]

It's crazy, the engine runs great and doesn't leak a drop of oil or coolant. But it definitely has some engine "knock" when you first start it for about a minute. So at this point I don't really feel like it's worth putting new heads on it. I've put 5k on it since I got it and the thing runs great. I have changed the oil at 1k twice due to it being super dirty. About 500 miles ago I changed the oil filter because I noticed the oil pressure drop and stay lower than normal. Changed the oil filter and now it's back to normal. Man you should have seen some of the oil come out of this engine since I have been taking care of it. It was like chunks of thick oil coming out of the drain plug. Now it seems to be staying cleaner etc.

---------- Post added at 11:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:03 PM ----------

Here is a pic:

 

[YukonXL04]

If you have the means to remove the engine, a machine shop shouldn't charge more than $2000 for a rebuild.

 

[livingez_123]

I would start with the heads myself. they are alum and can be fixed. Or just by a new pair. You might get lucky and it's just a bad HG. Also, I didn't think there was any water running through the Ls intake. That's why they have the bypass hose.

 

[Rivieraracing]

Your situation sounds like what happened to my water pump! Was going through a decent amount of coolant for a couple months, not a ton but more than I thought I should be seeing without an obvious leak! Then one day after driving into down, I parked the truck and about 15 minutes later I started seeing coolant on the ground. Got under the truck and that's when I saw that there was coolant coming out of the litle weep hole under the water pump right at the shaft.

Crawl under the truck and see if you can see if your water pump is leaking, also a somewhat common problem is to develop a crack at the bottom of the resevoir. Unfortunately a shop can tell you anything to get business so I would exhaust all the free diagnosis you can do on your own before forking out any $$$$$!

 

[foxracer025]

I don't have the means right now to remove the engine. If I did I would rebuild the engine myself. After breakfast this morning since I have the day off I'll go check and see if there is coolant coming from the weep hole on the water pump. I may even just try the brake clean method around the intake and look for bubbles.

If all else fails I may just have to take the valve covers off myself to see this "crack" in the head they were talking about.

 

[08grey]

Do a black stone laboratories oil test. It will tell you exactly how much coolant is making it into your oil.