88 Coolant Loss

Help!
I have been playing around with my 1998 Olds 88 trying to keep it in great shape. I just replaced the upper plenum again after some coolant loss and now I am still losing coolant. I broke a bolt but it is located near the alternator next to the pcv valve and I dont think there is any coolant going through that area.

The car runs great and does not overheat at all. I dont see any water / coolant in the oil. What should I look for?

Have someone pressure test the system and pay attention to the plastic elbows on the lower manifold and the belt tentioner also make sure its not at the heater core,good luck.

I am getting a pressure tester tonight. I will post the results.

When you did the upper, did you replace the lower gaskets and Elbows?

Ok, pressure test caused coolant to start to come out of the EGR valve tube.

I think that is conclusive of another gasket failure. I am waiting until next weekend and doing both the upper and lower gaskets. I think that I am getting a new (used) lower intake assembly instead of drilling out the bolt that broke off near the PCV valve. This time I am also doing the job with a torque wrench to avoid any issues. It takes very little time for me to do the upper and lower gaskets but the gaskets are expensive as can be.

Yes... Get the other intake as you may have a little warp in the lower you currently have... GM did have a few issues with this in the past, and at times would replace the lower intake..

Was the new upper you use an APN, Dorman/Motormite?

Also as you are doing the lower intake go ahead and get the GM aluminum Gaskets for it...

When you do the repair check the mating surfaces very closely for cracks and scratches and take your time,good luck.

I pulled two other intakes off at the junkyard and only one was good. It seems that there is a metal stove pipe that sticks into the lower manifold and up through the upper intake. Once I pulled the intakes out I realized that the Gabronie that originally repaired my intake had not replaced the metal pipe and several hundred dollars in gaskets later this has been my problem the whole time.

A little piece of metal pipe, LOL. I grabbed one and put it in this time.

I had to suck out the coolant from the lower intake and the engine was nearly hydrolocked. I couldnt start it last night but it was flooded bad and still had a little coolant that needed to be sucked in. Need to flush the oil and perhaps replace the plugs before I go too far. I have 20 Qts of 'decent' waste oil that I am going to just run through the car until I do a proper change out.

Should the '99 olds delta 88 have the updated "reinforced" upper intake manifolds where they have problems with the EGR melting them? Also is that supposed to be a for sure fix for this or is it still possible to have problems?

Another question is can anyone tell me what the normal operating temp should be on a '99 olds 88? I think mine is running on the hot side. Thanks in advance.

-Scott