williammackean

Bypass your TB. Take off the hoses and go to the parts store and ask for a hose with a like diameter with a 90 degree bend at one end and ~ 24" (measure to be sure) in length. Route that straight from the front of your intake to where the original hose connected on the passenger side. Never look back. One of the more worthless GM designs.

While you're there, get a 160 (or 180) tstat & gasket and replace the tstat. It might just repair your leak. BTW: Avoid removing the upper hose from the neck, unless you want to replace that while you're there. Also not a bad idea. Double up the clamps with a good pipe clamp and put 3-6 of the bio-sealant pellets into the system. Let it idle for ~ 20 minutes to mix it up with the heat OFF.

Check for leaks.

I had the same pooling and it turned out to be an old upper hose. So I replaced the upper, lower and radiator at the same time.

GREGGPENN

Thanks I'd posted (probably in another thread), that I was going to do the TB bypass. And, I understand how that could be the source of the leak. I also agree that's it's goofy for what's usually a summer-driven vehicle (but the TB is used on other GM cars). I already pulled the top radiator hose from the housing. There was a lot of grundge under it -- almost like mold. Never seen that before, but I've never had an 18yr old car with 50K miles either.

My plan is to replace upper and lower hoses while apart. I will say I've never thought/heard of doubling clamps or the pellets. What do they do?

BTW: I will be changing to a 180 thermo with an aux fan switch that lowers it's turn-on temp. (And, I agree with those who recommend improving radiator/water pump -- if you want/need more cooling).

Sam Lam told me about drilling two holes in the thermo to avoid packing. I'll do that too.

Thanks for your thoughts!

Edit:
Actually, another reason for this thread has to do with an intake I removed in the 80's. I haven't removed too many intakes and one did pitch a fit for me. At the time, I owned a 75 Celica that seemed to have a vacuum leak. (It was carburated.) I pulled the intake and regasketed it. Cured it for 1000 miles. Then, the stalling reoccurred. I repeated the seal with coppergasket sealer AND the normal gasket. Cured and returned. I tried double gasket and even planing the intake. I could not see a problem with the intake or block. After the 5th try, I sold it before it returned. I wasn't willing to pull the motor and plane the block. I was in my early 20's and didn't have the money to spend on an $800 car.

I've r/r'd a couple of other intakes over the years... heads... turbos...etc... Of course there were timing chains, water pumps too. But, I'd never removed a chevy V8 intake. And, I'd never removed one I wasn't FORCED to. So, I wanted to see what the possible "demons" were. After all, why do SOOOO many of them leak in the first place -- from the factory?!?!?!? Seems like they'd be smarter than me!

gp