hey,

I found my coolant leak, but i'm not sure where it is coming from. When the car is cold it doesn't leak. when the car hits 180 it starts to leak, at 200 it pours out . The coolant drips from the spark plug wires on the driver's side. Is my water pump shot? If so, how much of a pain is it to replace? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks to all in advance. Oh, the car is a 95 z28 with an m6.

 

Drivers side, dripping from the wires? Well, thats near the temperature sending unit for the guage.... could be loose?

 

leaking near the opti?

my top radiator hose (the big one on the drivers side) clamp decided to wear out and was dripping down in a similar manor. check the clamps.

either that or a pinhole leak, those are no fun.

 

You are just going to have to get under it and observe it when it is leaking. It could be shooting from anywhere if it is a pinhole in a hose. An alternate method is to rent a pressure tester so you can pressurize the system when the engine is cool. That will let you look without any hazards of a hot engine.

 

My car was also leaking only when hot. It was dripping from the driver's side opti terminals/plugs, but I could see it was coming down the front of the engine. Turned out to be the WP shaft. The WP is not that hard to replace, the only thing is that it's hard to not get the opti wet, you can drain it all you want but there's still gonna be this last gush of coolant coming out of the WP when you break it loose from the block. So now that you know that, just take your precautions (if you wanna keep your opti) and cover it up in plastic...

HTH

Sam

 

To keep that "last gush of coolant" from coming out when you remove the WP from the block, look from under the car on the driver's side of the car. There will be a plug in the side of the block, close to the motor mount, if I remembe corectly. Remove the plug and drain the block of coolant. It would be a good time to flush the block, you will be amazed at the stuff that comes out of there. Just be sure to put teflon tape on the threads befor you install it.

 

Good luck with the removal of either that plug or the knock sensor on the passenger side. On my car they were tight as I don't know what plus access to these two is really bad. It's more "under" than "close" to the motor mount. Not to discourage you, but just know that they are a PITA to get to. (Just like most of the engine BTW )

Sam

 

draining the block isn't necessary...

drain the radiator with th ecar on the ground, then start removing the hoses. the water will come out the hoses into your bucket (in theory, hah!) and drain down to the level of the waterpump. after that, jack the front of the car up so its at an angle and then start removing stuff. when you pry the waterpump off, very little if any coolant flys anywhere

 

You are a wize one anasazi.

I was just saying since his car is a 95 too, I pulled the block plug on mine (without much difficulty) and flushed the block. You would be amazed with what comes out of there. And I flush and replace the coolant in mine every other year.