Plz help me help my friend with 01 z28!

[FriendOfLS1]

Hey guys, I am trying to help my friend out who has an 01 Camaro z28 ls1/4l30e. I do not know a whole lot about Chevy's or Camaros/TA's, but I am fairly knowledgable with cars in general. Accoring to my friend, the 01/02 ls1's came with the ls6 intake manifold from factory, so I assume hes got the ls6 intake manifold on his stock (lid and exhaust) ls1. Anyways, my friend is describing a coolant leak that he says is coming from the intake manifold. I saw where the coolant had puddled up on the passenger side of his engine where the intake manifold meets the head. He thinks it is the gaskets between the manifold/head. I do not think coolant runs through the manifold. Upon a little research for my friend, I have noticed that there are coolant lines, or steam pipes or w/e underneath the intake manifold in the engine valley. Since his z28 is an 01, would his car have the ls6 style steam pipes and pcv setup? Or would he have the usual 98-00 ls1 style steam pipes and pcv setup?

My friend knows a good amount about his car, ls1, ls6 engines etc, but not too mechanicaly inclined, so I am trying to help him fix this coolant leak. Any information regarding this situation would be greatly appreaciated!

Also, I have seen some ls6 intake manifolds that are black plastic (like on my friends 01 ls1), and have seen some that seem to be aluminum. Are there more than one type of ls6 intake manifold?

After we fix this coolant leak we will be trying to make his 01 z28 run low 12's to beat this stupid teen's 96 mustang gt with intake, exhaust, heads, cam, 3.73's (i think. maybe shorter than that), drag radials, and a 50 shot fogger. He ran 12.6 in the 1/4 ON THE BOTTLE with out the high stall. He says he will run a 12.1 with his new high stall. My friends 01 z28 with intake and exhaust ran like a 12.7 I think on street tires. So the point is, please help me help my friend so we can make his bolt-on 01 ls1 z28 beat this kids built/n20 mustang. On the track, of course.

[FriendOfLS1]

Do you guys think that the steam pipes underneath the intake manifold could be the culprit of the coolant leak? My friend thinks its the intake manifold gaskets leaking, but I think it may either be the steam pipes under the manifold leaking somehow, or some other problem, not the manifold gaskets.... Please help me help my friend fix his z28 so we can take it to the drag strip to beat a built/n2o Rustang!

[reaper ws6]

no the pcv system is still the same as the ls1, the only differences is since he has a 01 he has no egr system like the 98-00 do, but pcv is still the same i think it maybe the gasket like your friend says but you wont really know until you get under there and tear it up, either way you have to take the intake off is not really hard there is a sticky here were it shows how to do it.

[FriendOfLS1]

I just don't understand how if the intake manifold gasket were leaking, there would be coolant puddling up since there is no coolant flowing through the ls6 intake manifold, only those small tubes underneath the intake manifold in the engine valley.

[Guerrillakilla13]

Sounds to me like your friends in a headache of a scenario if he decides to tackle a fix on his own. If it was up to me, I'd just take it into the shop so a professional can find out where it is and fix it without any problems.. but that's just me ha

As far as beating that Gt goes, what mods does your friend have?

[0rion]

I must've missed this post.......you're correct. The LS intakes do not flow coolant. Most likely his leak is either at the corners of the head where the x over pipes go too (there are little o-ring gaskets on it) or it could be leaking at the throttle body where the coolant line passes through the throttle body. Both are easy fixes and cheap. I suppose that x over could have a pin hole or something like that in it but if it does that'd be the first time I've ever heard of that happening. Usually it's one of those o-rings. Intake is easy to pull if you suspect one of the back ones as the culprit. Go to ls1howto.com and read up on the intake swap. No coolant to worry about and you can reused the gaskets since they're just rubber o-rings around the ports.

As far as the types of intakes. The ls1, ls2, and ls6 are all similar looking. All are black and the ls1 and ls6 are pretty much identical except for the part number and the bottoms are a little different. The grey ones you're talking about are aftermarket.

[FriendOfLS1]

Yeah I was pretty sure there is no coolant going through the intake manifold, so Im starting to think it may be the team pipes or w/e. Also, we bypassed the coolant lines going to the throttle body, so I can rule out the tb gasket leaking into the intake manifold. I guess we are just giong to take the intake manifold off and pressure test the cooling system to see where its leaking.

As far as mods on the 01 z28, right now it is just SLP lid with free ram air mod and k&n filter, and SLP loudmouth exhaust. He is planning to take his z28 off the road for a while, so we will be fixing every little problem, strip the car, adding more bolt-ons, a high stall converter and a set of drag radials. We are hoping to make his bolt-on 01 z28 beat that darn GT.

[0rion]

you should be able to see the front connections on the heads for the x over tube. Wipe those dry and run the car and see if it's one of those leaking.