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Losing engine coolant.


Guest Ralmon

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I need some help from the club members. My 89 8v TC is losing large amounts of coolant. System was pressure tested, no leaks. Compression test showed all cylinders at 127 lbs. No water in oil or trans. fluid. No white smoke. No water under car or visible anywhere in engine compartment. Spark plugs are all clean. Car runs great but is losing coolant somewhere. Mechanic pulled something off the turbo and said it had a lot of tan colored oil on it. Is there anything in the turbo that could leak or vaporize water? Any suggestions about why this is happening would be greatly appreciated. Nobody around here knows how to work on this car. Thanks for any help you can give me. Ralmon

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Guest BobFitz

How did you check for coolant in the oil? If there is tan colored oil (indicating coolant+oil) in the turbo then there is the same oil in the crankcase which should show on the dipstick. Check dipstick.

Bob

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I need some help from the club members. My 89 8v TC is losing large amounts of coolant. System was pressure tested, no leaks. Compression test showed all cylinders at 127 lbs. No water in oil or trans. fluid. No white smoke. No water under car or visible anywhere in engine compartment. Spark plugs are all clean. Car runs great but is losing coolant somewhere. Mechanic pulled something off the turbo and said it had a lot of tan colored oil on it. Is there anything in the turbo that could leak or vaporize water? Any suggestions about why this is happening would be greatly appreciated. Nobody around here knows how to work on this car. Thanks for any help you can give me. Ralmon

If you're absolutely certain you don't have antifreeze in the oil------Three places I can grab right off the top of my head, lets start with the. ah heck they're all bad, the least bad is heater core and even if you couldn't see it you would smell it, next is the inter-cooler and with any luck you will find a very wet rubber air intake line, even hate to mention this, warped head. Everything is cool when motor is cool and everything tests so good, warmer it gets the more it spreads, you don't see a leak when they first start to blow, this takes some time, usually you notice that you keep adding coolant and adding and adding and then it gets bad enough to leave a puddle on the ground. If you don't have a tester for exhaust gas in the coolant you can do this, AND DO IT VERY CAREFULLY. fill radiator with engine cold, put the rad cap back on, start the car and let it idle for about 1 minute, turn the engine off, cover cap with good heavy rag or towel and open the radiator, 1 minute isn't enough run time to build radiator pressure and certainly not long enough make it squirt when you pop the pressure cap even with an inter-cooler,

This kind of leak fills the rad with engine compression and coolant blows out through the puke bucket while you're running on the road, looks good when you pop the hood looking for your invisible leak because it's always full to hot, in the AM it's low or empty until it strays full and that happens when you loose enough coolant that the rad can't suck in when cold and if it's a head, it will get worse.

With any luck your inter cooler is misting down your your intake air, not the cheapest of the three to fix, definitely the easiest.

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Thanks, digger. I think you hit the problem. Heater core leaked a while back, bypassed the heater core, I live in New Orleans and it does not get very cold here. I really don't need the heater. I have done the test you mentioned, and I do get a squirt and pressure with engine running for only a minute or two. Does this indicate blown head gasket or warped head?

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Thanks, digger. I think you hit the problem. Heater core leaked a while back, bypassed the heater core, I live in New Orleans and it does not get very cold here. I really don't need the heater. I have done the test you mentioned, and I do get a squirt and pressure with engine running for only a minute or two. Does this indicate blown head gasket or warped head?

Can't actually see what you see and the way I describe by metaphor might not draw the same picture for you that it does for me. So, if it blew like a whale spout yes, if it futzed out the top like a warm soda yes, if it rolled over the edge could be, or you had air in the system and whatever you saw was a bubble and you want to top it off and do it again before you yank the head, and for this also check water pump flow, if it's not pumping good at idle you can boil the coolant out of the head in a minute and before you pay to have this done for a little gurgle have a shop with a tester check your juice for exhaust gas.

Chicken or egg, doesn't matter which came first. If you do have a weak water pump and your motor got hot, hot, you will be pulling the head eventually if that's not the problem today, it will be someday. Good news is the 8v turbo is the easiest head to do on a TC, having the head shaved flat cost what it costs depending where you are and you can get a reman for less than 5 bills, gasket set and all.

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Will have it checked for exhaust gas today. I am not mechanically inclined, and don't know much about these things. How long is the typical labor time to replace head or head gasket? I need to know so that I get an honest answer from my mechanic. I really like this car, but have spent a lot of money on it trying to get it right. At some point I am going to run out of money and patience with it. Thanks again for the help. Without this forum and help from the club, I would not have been able to maintain this car. I am sure that I will have many more questions about repairs on the vehicle.

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Will have it checked for exhaust gas today. I am not mechanically inclined, and don't know much about these things. How long is the typical labor time to replace head or head gasket? I need to know so that I get an honest answer from my mechanic. I really like this car, but have spent a lot of money on it trying to get it right. At some point I am going to run out of money and patience with it. Thanks again for the help. Without this forum and help from the club, I would not have been able to maintain this car. I am sure that I will have many more questions about repairs on the vehicle.

Don't know what the book says for time, have an old book out in the garage, but it's buried. Replacing a head is 6-8 hour all day job, if you got the motor hot you need to send the head out for resurface there is a wait time for that, or you can do a reman head swap. If the head's not warped you can do a lift and slip, this will save you hours and dollars, your mechanic will be able to advise you within minutes of getting the head free and checking the deck. If you can get this done without a head for 6 bills + or - you're in the ball park.

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Mechanic was here today, we did the block test kit and showed no signs of exhaust gasses in system. He doesn't think the head gasket is blown because the engine runs really well and shows no obvious signs of blown gasket or warped head though he said it is an outside possibility. He thinks the radiator is clogged up or has a blockage as the coolant boils over the top of the radiator and goes out in steam through overflow tube and that is why we don't see any white smoke. Another possibility is that the water pump went bad even though we put a new one in about 6 months ago and only has 2000 miles on it. Our next step is to remove radiator, take to shop for a clean and boil and see what happens. If all else fails, he will install a new head or have mine rebuilt. Thanks again for all the help, any and all help is welcome. Will keep everyone posted as things go along.

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Mechanic was here today, we did the block test kit and showed no signs of exhaust gasses in system. He doesn't think the head gasket is blown because the engine runs really well and shows no obvious signs of blown gasket or warped head though he said it is an outside possibility. He thinks the radiator is clogged up or has a blockage as the coolant boils over the top of the radiator and goes out in steam through overflow tube and that is why we don't see any white smoke. Another possibility is that the water pump went bad even though we put a new one in about 6 months ago and only has 2000 miles on it. Our next step is to remove radiator, take to shop for a clean and boil and see what happens. If all else fails, he will install a new head or have mine rebuilt. Thanks again for all the help, any and all help is welcome. Will keep everyone posted as things go along.

Glad to hear your exhaust gas test was negative, radiator cap only holds a few pounds of pressure and you can't say yes for sure to a slight gasket leak without the gas test.

Cleaning out a radiator every now and then is always a good thing to do and now I have to admit that I didn't think of this earlier and I'll tell you what it is in a minute.

First, before you send your radiator out for cleaning open your heater hose and test your water pump flow, squeeze it down like pinching a garden hose and make sure you have a good pump, nothing lost here, and would be good to know while the system is dry if you need to replace.

Here's the thing that didn't occur to me to mention even though you mentioned the heater core bypass. Did you plug? or did you put a good loop in the heater line?

Next way to obvious not to notice when you're there and so easy not to ask, but is your fan working?

Know these are little late and I assumed you already checked before asking for help, but a couple of months from now someone with a similar problem will be reading this and they are important questions for over heating and it sounds like you have eliminated head gasket and found the less expensive, easier to fix problem.

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Peak does make a 'Radiator Super Cleaner and Flush' for about $4.00 and if you think you might have a blockage in your coolant system, this would be a cheap ways of possibly correcting it. Read the directions on the label first as part of the directions say to run the engine for 3 to 6 hours. If the blockage is real bad it may over heat way before that. Bob

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