XCELLER8! Nailed it first guess. I just spent all weekend working on the truck and im happy to say its back in action.
Sure enough it was a bad seal on the valley pan. The antifreeze runs through the intake manifold, front to back and terminates on each bank at the very back of the intake manifold. Best guess is that the bolts had worked themselves loose and allowed the antifreeze to errode the gasket at the rear of the head. SO when the truck would reach temperature and full flow, the antifreeze would gush out the back of the passenger side intake manifold, down over the valley pan and over the back of the motor. started at about 8:30 am and was done by five. not a bad day saturday. pictures are here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/Ryan.Ov...IntakeManifold#
if a bunch of people have issues with seeing them there, i can post them in the thread too. The first ten pictures or so are just so i know how to put it back together, the tear down starts around picture 16.
Thanks to everyone for their input and support. I truly appreciate it. Having knowledgeable guys to lean on makes all this stuff a lot less intimiadating. Looks like, after i get my new springs in, the next project will be the center diff linkage that just decided to stop working while the truck sat for a few weeks. Im hopeful i can work it loose so i dont have to cut out part of the console hump.

Thanks again.

Turf

 

glad you got her fixed....keep watch of the coolant level just to be safe

 

Good job.

 

thanks guys, im not trying to jinx anything but i am surprised at everything going to plan. No extra parts, no busted bolts; apart... cleaned.... back together. Every clip and nut accounted for. I'm obviously going to keep an eye on it for a handful of days to make sure everything stays like it should, so cross your fingers. And thanks again for all the brainstorming and help. If you looked at my pictures, the last couple are of my breather hoses for the rocker covers. they're totally shot, can i replace them using standard vacuum tubing or do i have to get oem breather hoses?

 

wow. everyone's engine bays look soooo clean compared to mine. but, I'm of the school of thought that if you clean an engine, it'll start leaking. I may just clean it to test my luck though.