Originally Posted by Jooseppi Luna

This is the one confusing thing: that is all of the coolant I have managed to get out so far. The system supposedly holds 11-odd quarts.



I'm clearly missing several quarts of coolant. Where could it be? I've concluded that there is no drain plug on the rear of the block, so that means that I've basically done everything right so far (as far as I can tell). I forgot to check the oil, but last time I had a look, it seemed pretty good-looking.

My sister was saying that I should fill the system with water to see what it takes to fill it. It sounds like a good idea to me, but at this point I've disassembled enough of the car that I definitely should just complete the IM gasket job before trying to hunt down my missing coolant in ways that would require running the car.

My one concern, and maybe it is a little silly, is that there somehow is coolant hiding inside of the manifold that is waiting to spill all over the engine internals the second I pull of the lower manifold. Does this even sound like a remote possibility?