I got a pretty major coolant leak right now, I've just been too busy to put it up on my lift. Bought a few gallons to keep me going for a while, most recent fill up lasted me 3 days before the coolant light came on. My question is how much coolant can my Z take, and how much do I have left when the coolant light comes on?

 

Not 100% sure about the coolant amount, but the low coolant sensor is located about 2 inches below the radiator cap, so I'd assume there's still quite a lot of coolant left.

 

errrrrrr........go directly to an autoparts store and get more. Not worth trying to guess at it


also, fyi there are 15.1 quarts in an lt1 Z coolant system (auto) manual is 15.5 i believe. Placement of sensor is two inches from the top of the radiator cap as stated above, so u can guess how much is left from there. HOWEVER i do NOT recommend driving with it on. IF you have low coolant fill it!!!

 

Having air in the system is BAD, no matter how little. I believe my blown head gasket was partially due to an air pocket after I installed my new coolant temperature sending unit. Dont make a $4K mistake(I went ahead and rebuilt the entire engine)!

 

Oh don't worry as soon as the light goes on I replace whatever it needs to get rid of it. I'm pretty strict when it comes to the coolant levels. I just wanted to know what kind of "safe" zone I have with the car incase I can't put any coolant in.

 

those sensors are known to go bad. i just unplugged mine.

 

he has a leak not a bad sensor.............but as he stated our sensors suck for some reason, i just got done replacing mine because i was tired of having it unplugged (just me).

However, where is the leak??? is a hose or something?

 

Doesn't the sensor also get triggered if the Coolant Overflow (or whatever its called) get low?

My low coolant sensor goes on, the overflow (or whatever) is low but the regular coolant level is full. The car does not over heat and runs fine.

 

Well I overheated last night even with plenty of coolant so I think I may have to replace my thermostat and water pump. Sounds like this weekends project. The leak MAY be coming from the water pump.

 

My 95 has never been replaced with 148k miles. Even switched it to new radiator about 20k miles ago. Still no problem.

 

No... there is no level sensor in the overflow tank on an LT1. If your level is OK in the radiator, the sensor on the radiator is faulty. Try cleaning it, replace it, or unplug it.

 

As someone already mentioned, get air in the system and cooling system performance is reduced. If you aren't bleeding the system each time you get a low level in the tank, you're risking overheating.

And hopefully you are aware that large numbers of Optispark distributors have bit the big one and died from a few drops of coolant.

 

When I fill up the overflow with coolant the light goes off...

 

wierd because my coolant light tends to go on after the car is run for more then an hour straight but then goes away for weeks untill it comes back on randomly again i always check my coolant level when this happens and its still ok on the dipstick thing, i'm assuming its a faulty sensor i will try cleaning it this weekend