Ive been told that coolant can be smelled when the engine is warmed up and that it could be a blown head gasket and I should get it checked out. After doing some reading, everything says that I would also be loosing coolant. Ive checked my radiator several times and its always filled to the neck as it should be. I do know the car is running a bit ruff and it keeps giving a running rich fault but is there any simple way to know if its something like a head gasket blown causing the smell or if its a leak I just cant find? Any help would be greatly appreciated. I dont exactly have tons of cash to try and chase everything to end up with nothing. Thanks for the help.

 

I would just look for leaks elsewhere first. Maybe pull out the spark plugs, if a head gasket is bad chances are one or maybe two of the spark plugs will look different from the rest.

 

Check you water pump's weep hole.

 

Where do you smell coolant? In the engine bay, out the exhaust? How does the oil look? Just smelling coolant can be any part of the cooling system. You most likely have a leak. Physically check under the car with it running (at operating temp) and see if anything drips. Check your hoses (when they're cool!) for cracks or bulging.

 

The smell is coming from the Drivers side of the engine bay. The wife says she doesnt smell it out the exhaust. I havent noticed any leaks as I have tried to look. The engine oil looks normal. I have attempted to look for leaks several times but I dont see any. I know that the water level in the radiator is still full so if its leaking it must be very small since I never loose water.

 

If you had plenty of coolant in the overflow tank it will take some time to run that low. Keep an eye on it to see if it drops.

 

Would there be any other signs of a blown head gasket other than the smell in the engine bay and the running a bit ruff at idle? I mean it still seems to have lots of power when I am going down the street.

 

I do have plenty of coolant and it looks kinda orangey brown. Im assuming they used the orange stuff instead of the green. Speaking with my dad he said running no more ruff than it is most likely it wouldnt/shouldnt be a blown gasket. Does that sound about right?

 

Overheating, white smoke out the tailpipe, significant loss of coolant, oil looks like a milkshake .....

 

It could be the lines going to the heater core also. They run by 2 metal tubes on the lower passenger side header area (next to body)and then transition to rubber hoses connecting to seperate heater core input/output against firewall.

My headers damaged my rubber portion and created a small leak at one time. You could smell the coolant that way.

It is at least something to check into.


Edit: just saw that you said driver side ( would still check lines everywhere)

 

My mechanic had some UV dye he used to put in to check for leaks on customer cars.
Had some funky goggles he used to see it. Probably not a do-it-at-home
kinda project, but if you run out of ideas, I bet a local shop could do the
test for you pretty cheap.

 

Well, I went to the store and thought I small trace amounts of smoke out the pipes and then saw some water dripping. I reved the engine a bit and next thing I know after I cut off the car water is pouring out of the overflow tank. Guess that means blow head gasket huh.

 

I thought my head gasket was blown, losing coolant, leaking from the engine somewhere on hot days, smell, checked the plugs they looked like a worn normal plug, changed the oil constantly- no coolant in it, ran water wetter&dist.H20 in the raditor incase it was blown, ect. Turns out the water pump gasket was leaking!; Drivers side right next to the head gasket crevice/gasket too, freaked me out, I was so happy that's all it was.
The infra rad stuff mentioned above works good too.

 

not really, could be overflowing for other reasons, air, hose blocked ( this happened to me a month ago, hose was froze) thermo stat shut, ect.

water dripping could be just condesation, I'd be checking out everything mentioned by everyone before calling a head gasket, it took us 3 months to find the h20 pump gasket leak!

 

Well figured out why the water poured out. I guess when I checkd the coolant earlier I didnt put the cap on all the way so the loss in pressure caused it to push the water out. Still have the leak somewhere Im sure though and still have to figure out why the ruff idle and the running rich bank 1 fault keeps coming up. Hopefully yall are right and its not a head gasket. its just the water pump or something as for the leak goes since other than the one time Im not loosing any coolnant