I stopped by autozone last night to see if they had any kind of a head gasket pressure tester and the manager thought about it for a moment and said no they dont.

Anyways its lunch time and again the same leak as yesterday, same amount. and again the top of the valve cover is wet. I said I will swap out the hose clamps on the rubber hoses that connect to the throttle body heater but in the mean time i wonder; is it possible that the upper intake manifold gasket is leaking coolant onto the top of the valve cover?

 

No. There are no coolant passages in the upper intake manifold other than the throttle body heater plate.

 

yeah, the autozone people don't know what they are talking about half the time. Ask for a radiator pressure tester, not a head gasket.

autzone also has a chemical test for the headgasket you can rent. My buddy got one for his toyota... Yep head gaskets fail on those too ;-)

 

Never got around to changing the old clamps on the throttle body heat plate. But last Friday night I did pop the hood, topped off the coolant and tightened the hell out of the 2 clamps. Went through the weekend and all the way up to this morning before I even bothered checking the coolant level again. Popped the hood this morning and was delighted to find my coolant level at the full line. When I had the leak I was topping off the coolant every other day. So yet another bullet dodged.... last time I had a coolant leak it was because I did not tighten the clamp on the hose that connects to the bottom of the coolant expansion tank. Ive been lucky so far knock on wood. Im still going to try and get the head gaskets replaced before April 2015. I did observe that the color of the coolant in the expansion tank looks a rusty color, but interestly enough both times I had the leak I noticed the coolant was green. So either there is alot of corrosion inside the cooling system or the expansion tank just needs to be replaced. Its already on my to do list anyways along with the radiator and cooling hoses. Since 2012 ive drained and added fresh coolant maybe 3 times.

Thanks for your help everybody!