I need some help folks...I noticed that there seems to be a fair amount of "water" coming out of my exhaust pipes (just installed headers and dual exhaust on my 307 w/74K miles). Also, I noticed a little pool of oil siting on top of the intake. It looks as though it came up through the bolt hole nearest to the number 6 cylinder. I should also say that it seems like there is more water coming out of that side's tail pipe as well. Any idea of what's causing this?

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James V. Hambright
'71 Malibu (Drop-Top)

Sorry...I should have also said that the car starts right away, idles smooth and runs good, although there is some smoke on start-up which I thought was from bad valve seals. Thanks...

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James V. Hambright
'71 Malibu (Drop-Top)

Are you losing / using any coolant? If not then the water dripping out of the exhaust is probably condensation, a normal occurence. I would not be particularly concerned if there is more water coming out of one side of the engine than the other IF there is no coolant loss.

With respect to the puddle of oil you might try re-torquing the intake manifold with the engine cold. #6 cylinder (intake runner) is not near any water passage and I suspect that there is no no connection between the two problems you describe.

One thing you can count on is that if you are losing coolant at a differential rate that is noticable between tail pipes you have a significant leak that will soon void your cooling system of coolant since you don't have all that much coolant to start with.

[This message has been edited by charbilly2001 (edited 02-05-2002).]

Thanks for the reply. Over the last month I've replaced the water pump and had the radiator redone. Of course I had to add coolant after that but I figured I just didn't get it filled up all the way the first time. And last week I installed a mechanical water temp gauge so I once again had to add coolant. Now that I've stopped scewing around with the cooling system I'll be able to watch it and the engine temp carefully. Do you think these items could be the result of a bad intake gasket?

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James V. Hambright
'71 Malibu (Drop-Top)

It certainly is possible that the gasket is bad but since you have done so much work on the car lately try driving it for a few days and track coolant loss. Should not cause harm as long as you frequently check. Right now you need to establish some base lines to see whats up. Keep posting as this thing develops. Good luck.

Try a brass washer on that bolt ,it worked for me.