Intake gaskets and surge tank

[cavell]

2008 equinox 3.4 120k miles
I have done 3 head gasket jobs on 3 different equinoxes.
now I am doing 4th
sadly, I bought it from sister in july
she never had issues
upper rad hose is cold. Surge tank is high
replaced thermostat. Bled system. Problem returned 2 days later.
pulled heads, lots of crud in cooling passages.
intake gasket has 1 port with messed up gasket
i assume gaskets are bad as they are original?
could a bad intake gasket result in hose issue and high surge tank?

 

[bearbait]

Could it be that nobody is changing their coolant. I change mine every 5 yrs. as there are anti-corrosion chemicals in coolant that weaken in time causing head gaskets to corrode. Never had a head gasket problem in my 50+ years of driving.

 

[cavell]

question is, a bad intake gasket would not cause a high surge tank condition, would it? Yes crud in cooling system may indicate poor coolant flow? If you have a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. I pulled intake. Not to inspect gaskets, but to pull heads. Intake gasket had a problem. Were my headgaskets ok or not?

 

[cavell]

New head gaskets. New intake gaskets.
motor temp is fine but poor vent temps
so, I flushed out heater core.
have heat now. Rad hoses are hot.
sounds like I fixed it.

 

[cavell]

And I still haven’t got to my torrent to do heads. i have 2 others cars and the torrent sorta sits if I don’t feel like driving it. Too bad my dads heated shop is 100mi away. Maybe I should visit him more?
its 26’ deep so there is a ton of room in front of car to move around in.