There is nothing back there that has coolant in it, and the photos youve got are a bit too dark for me to make anything out .

You likely have a head gasket leak, or a leak at the intake manifold and it is running back behind the heads and coming out where you are looking

 

I agree there is nothing that I can find that should have coolant there... I will try some head gasket sealant to see if it improves the situation.

 

You can see from this photo how close the coolant passage is to the outside of the head, I am afraid you have leaking HG. Sorry. If you loosen the cap one turn it will not build pressure and will let you drive a while until it gets so bad you have to change the HG.

 

 

I do not disagree that the head gasket sealer is not an ideal nor long term solution. My intrest is two fold, first if the head gasket sealer fixes or slows down the leak, there is justification in tackling head gasket repair. Second it will buy me some time to gather the needed parts, plan the work and work on some other pressing projects first.

I did pour in some BAR head gasket sealer this AM. I followed the directions, ran it up to 217F, shut it down and let it cool, topped the coolant off, ran the motor at a high idle up to 217F and let it cool. Next I drove the truck for a 3 mile loop, temperature came up to 208 - 212deg for the drive. Parked the truck in my workshop and first check shows no leaks. This is an improvement so far.

Again not a long term fix, but a useful troubleshooting step IMO. On a truck I bought for $1K the risk to the cooling system $$ wise is minimal. Thanks for the advice and input as always.

 

When it rains it pours... Drove the truck 24 miles yesterday... no issues. Today went 2 miles and it stuttered and shut off. Threw P1884, P0335, P0150, P0420 and would not start. Cleared the codes and it drove the 2 miles home, stuttering and stalling as it pulled into the driveway yet no codes. Sat for 2 hours and started back up just fine. A head scratcher... day by day the ACE Chevy 350 upgrade looks better and better by the day. Hope the kit gets sorted and released at a manageable cost rather than keep chasing the gremlins with the Buick 4.6.

 

Adapter ring adaptions... I found a link stating this needs to be done after a Crank Shaft Position sensor is replaced. It seems you just put it in 2nd gear, rev it to the rev limiter and let it idle back down?

 

 

Turned out, I did not get the CKP plugged in all the way. Plug worked loose. Today I attempted to reconnect the sensor into the harness, truck fired right up. I may have to take the exhaust down in order to get my hands up in there to ensure the plug is firmly connected. The Foxwell NT520 was useful in diagnosing the issue as the dwell angle and crank error correlated to the engine stalling. That pointed right to the CKP.

 

Final update for this thread.

Replaced:

• CKP... twice, first one was defective from Advanced Auto. $100
• Plugs, wires and coil pack... random mis fire codes cleared and have stayed gone. $85
• Intake gasket... to replace the coil pack the intake had to come off... $35
• Valve cover gaskets,,, oil leaks have stopped or slowed to unnoticeable. $45
• PVC upgrade $10
• all four O2 sensors + the passenger upstream O2 sensor a second time. Cat efficiency and fuel trim codes are cleared and have stayed gone. $250
• Bar head gasket leak fix... 120 miles and counting. No more coolant leaks (Head gasket will get replaced some time this summer.) $35
  • Total ~$560

Purchased:

• Non running 2003 HSE $1000
• Foxwell NT520 pro scan tool and used it to diagnose some of the issues. $170

I took the truck to and passed the NC state inspection, tomorrow it gets registered. So far ~$1,730 into the truck, to be running and ready to be registered.