Justinspears1994

I noticed I have oil in my radiator but no water in my oil. At first I thought maybe head gasket but I was told it could be intake gasket. Any thoughts?

RockinWs6

Power steering cooler, can NOT be the intake because its no water flows through the intake. Who ever gave you that advice please don't ask for any more. Pull the power steering cooler and upper rad hoses, toss it in the garbage. Replace the upper hose with one from a 99 TA without the crapo cooler. YOU DON"T NEED IT! regardless what anyone tells you.

RPM WS6

iTrader: (3)

Everything posted above is correct. It's probably the junk factory PS cooler, they are known for doing this. You'll likely need to flush both your cooling and PS system to get rid of the cross-contamination. As mentioned above, you can simply get a radiator hose from a base V8 ('98/'99, non-WS6/non-SS) and be rid of the cooler forever.

We have a massive thread on this, here's a link:

https://ls1tech.com/forums/general-m...g-success.html

As you'll see in the above link, some folks like to go with an aftermarket air-to-fluid cooler to replace the flawed fluid-to-fluid stock cooler. But as discussed and tested later in that thread, for most applications, no cooler is really necessary.

You can also find some great flush instructions for cleaning both systems within that link, and/or a separate search.

Justinspears1994

so replace hoses and do a good flush of coolant and ps and I should be good?

RockinWs6

Toss the cooler and 2 hoses, replace with 1 piece upper hose for 99TA. Flush coolant, replace power steering fluid with DEXRON 6 auto trans fluid<your power steering pump will thank you. Go drink beer


I have over 600k miles without power steering coolers on these cars without a single issue. Never had to replace any power steering related parts. I Also use Dexron 6 in the power steering . Systems run cooler and quiet, All the dealers use it too.

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

... and going forward, you should replace your power steering fluid more frequently if you aren't going to have the cooler. That's another lesson from the thread linked above. ^ You should really take the time to go through it.

One thing you might keep in mind is that in order to truly flush out the coolant system, you need to open up two drain plugs on the side of the block. This will have a gallon or so of coolant pour out onto the floor. It makes a total mess - but that's the deal.

RPM WS6

iTrader: (3)

I've had great success doing regular partial changes (turkey baster) on mine; 20 years on the original pump with no cooler and it's never had a boil over/weeping issue even on 90°F+ days.

RockinWs6

Dex 6 in mine with over 150k still dead quiet and the fluid looks new. New car dealer were the guys that told me about switching over to it.