pooling coolant on Intake manifold.

[dbrightb]

Okay.. I need some help from you guys. I replaced my lower intake manifold gasket two weeks ago.. install with no issues. However, I did notice last night that on the passenger side of the intake manifold in the depressed areas around or near the fuel injectors, I see little pools of coolant. Now I suspect that I screwed something up but for the life of me, I cant find the leak!
I looked at the usual suspects in that area.. heater hose, top radiator hose, and temp sensor but all seem to be okay. The only thing I can think of is I have a leak only from one of these hoses while running the Explorer. Any other locations or components do you all know that I have missed?

Also, my temp gauge now fluctuates between N and R while driving. It seems tho it will drop to N when the Thermostat opens.. doesnt overheat and i get good heat inside from panel.. Is it possible, this is a symptom of the aformentioned leak? I would assume that if cooling system can not hold pressure then this would cause the cooling temp and guage to fluctuate more than normal. Correct me if I am wrong in this assumption.
And my gas mileage has decreased significantly since I installed the lower intake manifold gasket... any ideas?

I know its alot of questions and I have used the search but I wanted to know if anyone has had a specific experience dealing with this exact issue.

Thanks in advance! You all ROCK!

 

[mechjames]

did you seal the spots at the front and back of the gasket? in my fel-pro kit when I did mine it came with a little bit of black silicone. If those aren't siliconed I've heard it leaks.

although I just reread your post and you said it was on the top near the injectors. this sounds like a cracked or loose rad hose. My neighbour had a new yorker and the top rad hose was intact, but around where the clamp was it would leak. it had been taken off and reinstalled too many times, and the clamp had poked a hole in the hose.

not sure about the temp problem, but with my new thermostat, sometimes it goes a little past half then the thermostat opens, and it drops back down to 1/4. this has really only started with the cooler weather though. temperature will usually go up while idling, go down while driving. on the highway temperature would go down even more because of all the air being forced through your grille and under the hood.

 

[dbrightb]

well it seems that I need a new water outlet pipe. It's so corroded and pitted that the hose will not seal completely around the pipe... ugh! Its a small leak and that was causing the pooling around the passenger side fuel injectors.