1988 CHEVY G30 350 5.7

[sethstovall23]

Yo! I have a question for any old van experts out there. I have a 1988 chevy g30 with a 350 5.7 in it and am having some engine issues. I don't have much time for it right now but I am looking to fix it in the future. It loses coolant (a gallon every 2-4 weeks depending on how much I drove it) but have never leaked any coolant on the floor and I've never visibly seen drips around or on the motor. The other issue I'm having Is that is loses oil slowly (half a quart a month maybe) but again I have never seen oil drip on the driveway and I don't visibly see any oil dripping on or around the motor. Both fluids just randomly disappear and no, there has never been white smoke coming out of the exhaust. The van will start up and run like a dream but I'm afraid the motor is gonna expire soon and want to prevent it because it runs so smooth. The most recent issue I had which made me stop driving the van all together was that I was driving home from work and the engine light popped up for 30 ish seconds and I lost 95% acceleration when I would press the gas. It would feel like a bog when I stepped on the gas and eventually I would ease on it and it would get up to speed and it did that a number of times that night. Since then I've started it up to run it and it runs great. I've driven it 2 times since that situation and it didn't bog. But now she is parked until I can get her fixed. I've done a TON of work to this van and went on to live in it for about a year until this happened and it's been sitting for about a year but will fire up anytime. I've pressure tested it on the radiator and nothing was wrong. Part of me says head gasket but I don't really know. Any help?

Also, I've had this issue since I got the van - The temp gauge will flicker back and forth to hot and regular temp multiple times when I'm driving. It is a slow gradual raise to the hottest temp and then it slowly goes back down to regular temp, BUT the motor is not actually getting hot. I've replaced the sending unit and even the entire gauge cluster but still had the same issue and chose to leave it. Not sure what that is.

 

[Chancegoodman]

I’d recommend with a combination leak tester to double check for the head gasket it might be a slow enough leak that you wouldn’t see puff of smoke but it could be burning the kit is like 30 or so bucks on Amazon and will tell you if you have exhaust gases in the coolent