Been losing coolant like crazy - 1+ qt every 15 minutes of highway cruising.

Facts:

No visible leaks.
No smoke in the exhaust.
Car is running great.
No water in the oil.
Coolant is ending up in the resivoir.
Radiator cap has been replaced twice.

Looks like there is too much pressure in the system. All I can think of is a head gasket, but I have never heard of blowing a head gasket and NOT getting coolant in the combustion chamber. Anyone ever have a blown head gasket causing engine compression to (over)pressurize the coolant system?

tia,
Ryan

 

This might be a shot in the dark, BUT...

Check your transmission fluid. If the core in the radiator for the factory transmission cooler is busted, you might end up with coolant in the transmission.

And are you sure that the water pump weephole is not leaking? There's not much else you can rule out...

 

I had a blown head gasket. It was a small leak so I didn't have any white smoke, yet it would consume quite a bit of water. Easiest way to check for blown head gasket is to let it warm up and watch for bubbles in radiator (the return) with cap off. If that is your problem, an easy way to figure out which side is messed up is to unbolt your valve covers and look on the underside of them. One of them will have an orange tint to it if you still use dexcool (place them side by side to make it easier to notice).

 

1 quart every 15 minutes?...that should easy to find.. Tell you what.. Check your oil for the milkshake syndrom..if not fill it up with water and let it run in the driveway for a while.. has to show..if that doesnt work run it by a shop and have them pressurize the system..that will be the best way to find it..they pump the system to 18 psi and if theres a leak it WILL leak..

 

Just replaced the waterpump - the old one was leaking - thought it was the problem at first. It was leaking, but it was not the main culprit.

Its a 6-speed .

The local parts house didn't have any tools to pressurize the system. Anyone know a place where I could buy a pressurizing kit?

There are bubbles in the coolant. I'm using the green coolant (75% water) - same valvecover test? Not much more work to pull the other head at the same time. I'd like to throw some 1074s on while I'm in there.

Exactly the info I wanted to hear. Thanks for the help so far.
Ryan

 

You can rent one from Autozone>Jake.

 

Go rent the pressure tester. Is the car running any hotter than normal?

 

Car runs normal - The longest I've run it is about 45 minutes (highway/traffic) and it has never heated up over normal (200ish).

I will get the pressure tester.
Ryan

 

Pressure tested the car. Holds pressure just fine, no leaks...nothing.

I'm going to re-verify its not ending up in the resivoir before I say its a head gasket.

Ryan

 

I'd think that if it was the head gasket and you were losing a quart every 15 minutes, you'd definately see it in the oil or exhaust. Go run your car and stand in the back. You should be able to smell it too.

 

If you were losing that much and it was a headgasket I'd think you would see a pretty good pressure loss.

 

Definately do a pressure check on the coolant system, if there is any loss what soever (within reason) there is a break in it, to determine which cylender it is hook pan air tank up to each cylender ,via sparplug hole(one at a time) to determine which side it is on, do not make the mistake of not having your heads checked for flatness before you reinstall them.

 

I had the same problem on my '93 but not loosing quite as much coolant in that short amount of time. No visible leaks, no smoke out the exhaust, etc. I finally removed the battery and checked the overflow tube from the coolant resevoir to the radiatior and found a split in the hose under the battery. The coolant had leaked down into the area under the battery and 'dispersed' which made it hard to detect. I replaced the hose and that fixed the problem. I haven't lost coolant since and that was about 4 months ago.

Hope this helps...

 

Sounds like a headgasket.....you could probaby put the valve covers side by side and tell which one.

 

Ditto on the overflow hose .... I had the same problem.

Mine was caused by a failing battery. The battery started to leak a very small amount of acid and I didn't notice. The acid ended up melting a hole in the overflow hose.

New overflow hose + Optima red top fixed it right up

Thomas.