1997 Civie EX Coupe. What I thought was a simple intake manifold swap, turned out to be a nightmare. I have everything back on, and all hoses plugged in. When im filling the radiator with coolant its leaking from somewhere in the back, I can't find where. When i put the radiator cap back on it stops. Taking everything off again....

 

I had the same problem a while back.
I'll try to hlep you out.
Are you using a stock intake manifold gasket?
Torque the 12mm intake manifold nuts/bolts down to 18ft lbs, I went with 20ft lbs.
Make sure you plugged the coolant flow hole located on the passanger's side of the intake manifold.
Chances are it's that side of the intake manifold gasket that is leaking.
A lot fo fluid gets trasnfered there and your bolts may not be torqued well or you may be missing one.
ANother helpful tip is after you torque the bolts down of course bubble air out of your coolant and drive it around for like 10mins, come back and retorque your gasket bolts/nuts. See if that helps.
Oh and are you just dribbling coolant down, or is that sucker flowing?

 

It's coming out pretty good, but its strange, because like i said. When the radiator cap is on the leak stops. And, yes im using the stock intake manifold gasket.

 

thats because theres no air pressure pushing the water out. Is just like if you take a 2liter bottle and fill it with water put the cap on and drill a hole in the cap, turn it upside down and it wont leak or it will drip slowly... now cut a hole in the other side of the bottle and the water will start to come out of the hole. Thats the way liquids work.

 

Hey man, I can't respond to PMs cause I am still a trial noob.
What that last guy said was correct. Coolant can't flow if theres pressure on it, such as a radiator cap not allowing air to help the coolant flow.
Well anyways did you make sure you took the old gasket off COMPLETELY, like scrapped every last bit of it? Some of the old gasket when you take it off is melted on.
Hope that helps.

 

I'm willing to bet you didn't hook back up the IAC coolant lines on the water pipe, or onto the IAC.

 

did you use a new intake manifold gasket if not i would suggest getting one i had the same prob and it was leaking from the coolant passage in the intake manifold

 

I scraped off all of the old gasket, there was a little left around the bolts i couldnt get off otherwise all removed. I bought a new gasket from Honda, im getting to work on this first thing in the morning. Anyone else have some advice? TIA

 

I give up! I Think im bringing it into the stealership Monday! Rpm keeps going up and down and blowin enough white smoke out the tail to fill my whole nieghborhood!

 

Can anyone else help me out??


Modified by civic97b18csi at 5:33 PM 3/6/2004