I don't know if I was unclear or using the wrong names, but I DO have a leak coming from my lower intake gasket or valley pan gasket, whatever you want to call it, from the front left and back right. I am tring to find a way to see if head gaskets are bad too without replacing the valley pan just to see if its still loosing coolent.

 

You can tell for sure it's your lower intake gasket and not your head gasket? Where the coolant would be flowing through them are right next to each other. Are you planning on DIY or having a garage do it? If it were me and I was going do do all that work I would just do them all but that is just me (that is what I did). Honestly when you get down to the lower manifold getting the cylinder heads off is not that much more work as long as you have the right tools as the head cylinder bolts are on there good and there are a lot of hard to reach bolts so you need good tools.

 

well its gotten very close to over heating twice and both times coolent was hissing out where the intake meets the head. it was far enough up that i don't think it was from the crack between the head and block. If it was just an intake I was going to do it myself cause heads need surfacing right? can you leave the heads together when you pull them off or do you need to disassemble them?

 

You were clear that you had a valley pan gasket leak.
No, a coolant pressure test won't tell you if you also have a head gasket leak because it will looser pressure through the leak you've already identified. That's what I was saying before.
It really depends on how much work you want to do for the "just in case" scenario. You could do the heads as well, and maybe it might not be a bad idea since your engine almost overheated.
Or, you can gamble the $15 for the valley pan gasket kit, do that, and see if that takes care of your problem. And then do the coolant pressure test. Worst case you've wasted $15 and some time.
Certainly it's not going to hurt anything, other than your wallet, to do the heads also.
They only need resurfacing if they are out of spec for warpage.

Have you done a compression test? That can indicate a blown head gasket. Also check oil for coolant.

 

You leave them assembled. My left cylinder head was pretty twisted and the machinist had to remove a fair bit of material. My right head was not too bad but still was not level. That was with it overheating once. The machinist I took it to charged me $75 to glass bead and plane the heads.

Like antichrist said you can do the valley pan and see if you still have a leak. To get to the lower gasket you still need to remove quite a few things, like the belt, fan (don't have to but makes it easier), alternator and housing, air conditioner compressor, PAS pump, a couple pulleys, rocker covers, ignition coils, upper manifold, a bunch of radiator tubes.

I think you said you don't have coolant in your oil but they can still leak on the outside. The place where you would look is right on the ends of the heads. That is where the coolant runs. Right next to that is where the valley pan would leak from.

Give the lower manifold a shot and see what happens. With 2 overheats though I bet your cylinder heads are warped though. But if they are not leaking after the loer gasket then I would not worry about it.

 

Whoah! All I removed was what's listed in the manual. Though to get it back on I had to remove the valve covers as the gaskets were protruding towards the engine center line enough to block the intake from seating properly.

 

Mine is a Disco II not sure what the OP has. I believe those parts are listed in the Shop Manual for DII's to be removed for the lower gasket. Maybe not the Alternater/housing and tensioner pulley. I know the AC compressor and PAS pump block a bolt for the lower intake manifold

 

i think i will change it and see what happens, its just time and cheap parts. I'll probably change the valve cover gaskets too while I'm at it. Now, just to find the time to do it.

 

Felpro MS96002. 13$ at Autozone and comes with both end seals and RTV for the end seals.
AFAIK the valve cover gaskets you'd need to order, but there may be aftermarket that work.
If you remove the thermostat housing you'll need a Felpro 12994 gasket, about $1.

 

theres a gashet to replace when you replace the thermostat? i didnt see one when i did mine....