Buick 263 Cooling Oh no...LONG

[Aaron65 243]

OK...I've got a rebuilt 263 that was redone 5 years ago, and has 6,000 miles since. I checked the antifreeze yesterday for the first time in awhile, and noticed it was low...I had to add a couple of quarts. Just for the heck of it, I rented a cooling system pressure tester from AutoZone, pumped it up to 7 pounds, and it held pressure fine. I took it for a ride and got it nice and warm, waited 15 minutes, took off the pressure cap, and tried again. This time, it lost maybe a half pound of pressure in 2-3 minutes.

It runs great, no smoke from the pipe, no missing. It runs cool, never comes close to overheating. The only clue that something may be wrong is that it leaves a little drop of water from the road draft tube and snots up the oil filler with condensation. Neither smells like antifreeze.

I've got bad vibes of cracked heads/blocks, etc. Any ideas? I'm not feeling good about this...

[shadetree77 50]

If it doesn't overheat I wouldn't worry about it right now. Just keep a close eye on your coolant level and watch your oil for signs of contamination. I worry a lot about things on my old Buick and I often worry myself into a mess over something small. At this point, my Dad always chimes in with, "Don't fix it til' it's broken!". He also adds that there is no point getting myself so worked up over something that hasn't even happened yet.

[bofusmosby 16]

On my old Pontiac, I had noticed a few years ago that the coolant level was a little low, so I filled it up. One day while the car was running, I noticed that there was water dripping from under the front of the car. I panic'ed! Come to find out, it was coming from the over-flow, and there was no problem. The level went down a bit in the radiator, and then stopped dripping. I believe that my cap is a 7 Lb cap, and I guess I had filled it too high. The car has never come close to over-heating, and the level in the Radiator never fluctuates from from the level it is at now. I am assuming that this is normal.