Internal Coolant Leak (Edelbrock Air-Gap Intake)?

[69 Short Fleet]

Hi, my rad coolant level has dropped twice in a row due to an internal coolant leak . The rad level is approx. 1/3 full, I never had this problem before until I installed the Edelbrock air-gap intake manifold, and I'm darn sure my block and heads are not cracked as I've never had this problem before. So I'm wondering if I didn't use enough RTV sealant around the front where the water neck location is (on the block). I'm thinking that it may be leaking internaly on the rear of the water/coolant hole (the main one that is part of the block). I put RTV sealant on all of the bolt threads and also around all the passages. Has anyone every experianced this before. I'm kinda choked as I just pulled the intake a couple weeks ago to fix an oil leak at the rear of the intake . Any comments are greatly welcome, thanks Doug

[mrein3]

Is there water (antifreez) in your oil?
If not do you have an overflow bottle for your radiator?
If you don't have an overflow bottle and there is no water in your oil this is NORMAL. Without an overflow bottle the antifreeze naturally expands and is forced out of the overflow tube where it drains on to the street. When these trucks were made nobody worried about spilling a couple of ounces of antifreeze on the road.

I guess I should add that you should make sure there aren't any external leaks to the coolant system. If you don't see anything leaking keep an eye on the level. 1/3 full may be your "full" mark.

If that is the case just watch your temperature gauge. Or buy an overflow bottle from pickmup for $40.

[Blue Beard]

You might check with Edelbrock and get advise from them.

They are helpful, and if its a new issure for them it might be a problem to resolve.

[Huck]

Make sure your intake bolts are torqued down correctly as they can create many interesting problems--like increased oil consumption, coolent loss, vacuum loss etc. If all is tight ----and you are running with coolent about 4-5 " below the cap, that is normal as mine runs like that for years.
When I switched over to an edelbrock intake matching their carb, my gas mileage went down 2mpg, engine ran hotter and lost torque. It did improve the top end rpm but dropped low end torque which was not what I wanted. I switched back to the stock intake, adapter and 1406 carb. From what I've heard, to get max performance with edelbrock intakes, you need to match it to their camshafts which I didn't do. Good luck---Huck

[69 Short Fleet]

The oil seems to be a nice proper color mrien 3 and I don't have a overflow bottle yet (going to put one on soon) and I understand how antifreeze expands with heat but it seems to be "loosing" too much. There are no external leaks and my temp gauge is reading where it should (no fan shroud, no inner fenders, and am running a flex fan) and it gets CRAZY HOT where I live so hmmmm... I'm gonna pull the spark plugs and see whats up (just to make sure) I'm gonna talk to Edelbrock and see whats up there Blue Beard, and everything is torqued in the correct pattern to 35 lbs and I'm running a 1406 on top of the intake and headers but my gas mileage Huck is bad right now (however I need to tune up everything) Maybe you are right though 1/3 full is where it likes to be? I don't know... these sort of things make me nervous (LOL) Regards Doug

[jorgensensc]

I have the same intake. Did you make sure and get the high performance gasket that is recommended for this intake. A regular intake gasket will not seal this one up properly. I had a leak when I put mine on also, but then I found out about the gasket (about 20.00) and replaced it and used copper gasket sealer. The leak went away. Be sure and look at their websight and follow the directions to Completely. I can't remember exactly how, but you have to assemble, then dissassemble, then reassemble after something dries, then torque again, but I can't remember what or in what order. The directions and the gasket part number are on the websight. Hope this helps a little.
Shawn