Anyone ever heard of a cooling water jacket for the intake manifold?

[Quasmo]

Some body shop is trying to tell me I need new cooling water jackets because they are leaking coolant from the intake manifold. Anyone ever heard of this?

I have a 1999.5 Nissan Pathfinder and they want to charge $1000 to do it.

 

[thedarkwolf]

Yes lots of cars have water running through the intake manifold. I assuming they are saying your's is cracked and they are replacing it. I'd go for a second opinion. I doubt a new intake manifold is cheap but I'd want to see if somebody could do it for less then a grand.

 

[Homer Simpson]

unless you have a plastic intake that could've cracked, chances are you just need a new lower intake gasket. thats not to say an aluminum or iron intake cant crack but its just less likely. even if its plastic, could still be just gaskets. no way to really know until you take it off.

 

[mwmorph]

The VG33E has aluminum intake manifolds so this is rare, but not impossible, especially as it ages, but as always with large repairs, see if you can get a second opinion.

 

[Kadarin]

Originally posted by: mwmorph
The VG33E has aluminum intake manifolds so this is rare, but not impossible, especially as it ages, but as always with large repairs, see if you can get a second opinion.

I've seen cracks in aluminum intake manifolds, but these usually have two causes that are unrelated to "wear": (1) Improper installation, where the intake bolts were improperly tightened with either too much force, or in the wrong sequence. (2) Poor design, where there's not enough aluminum material to reinforce the area where the bolt is. When this happens, a dealer may see a significant number of similar failures.

Intake manifolds will only "wear" in that I've seen some get pretty corroded where coolant travels through them. This, of course, will depend on the engine design.

 

[Shawn]

How much is it leaking? If not must I'd just leave it and top off with coolant every so often (I'm cheap that way though).

 

[NaughtyGeek]

Well, figure the intake manifold itself likely runs ~$350 from Nissan and then there's 4 to 6 hours labor to be done. If you can read and have any mechanical skills, buy the Chilton's and find an intake manifold somewhere besides the dealer. If you have the aptitude, you can likely do this yourself on a Saturday afternoon for ~$200 depending on where you get the manifold and gaskets from.

 

[bruceb]

You need to get it checked by another mechanic. The worst thing that can
happen is if the lower intake manifold gaskets fail, which on most cars,
can result in coolant getting into the cylinders. Then it could cause a lot
of problems.

 

[Throckmorton]

DANGER TO MANIFOLD

 

[mooseracing]

Originally posted by: Shawn
How much is it leaking? If not must I'd just leave it and top off with coolant every so often (I'm cheap that way though).

If it's getting into the cylinders or getting into thte oil, no way in hell would I just run it. That is way to much damage to the engine everytime its driven.

You could get enough into the cylinders and hydrolock the engine and you wouldn't know until it let loose.

 

[Shawn]

Originally posted by: mooseracing

Originally posted by: Shawn
How much is it leaking? If not must I'd just leave it and top off with coolant every so often (I'm cheap that way though).

If it's getting into the cylinders or getting into thte oil, no way in hell would I just run it. That is way to much damage to the engine everytime its driven.

You could get enough into the cylinders and hydrolock the engine and you wouldn't know until it let loose.

You would need a lot of water to hydrolock the engine. A small drip wouldn't cause any problems.

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: Shawn

Originally posted by: mooseracing

Originally posted by: Shawn
How much is it leaking? If not must I'd just leave it and top off with coolant every so often (I'm cheap that way though).

If it's getting into the cylinders or getting into thte oil, no way in hell would I just run it. That is way to much damage to the engine everytime its driven.

You could get enough into the cylinders and hydrolock the engine and you wouldn't know until it let loose.

You would need a lot of water to hydrolock the engine. A small drip wouldn't cause any problems.

It would, however, corrode the cylinders and get into the oil which severely degrades the lubricity of the oil.

Coolant in the cylinders is bad, bad, bad.

ZV

 

[DivideBYZero]

Originally posted by: Throckmorton
DANGER TO MANIFOLD

Hehe, that got a chuckle out of me!

 

[alkemyst]

Replacement Water Cooling Jacket