Add me to the list of mysteriously losing coolant

[Stalker27]

Yep smelled it last night in driverside tailpipe. Only reason i did i bent down to pull my car cover down over the bumper when i got a wiff of something that smelled like coolant. So once i regained my heart from my stomach i went inside & ate then came back out to car & had the gf start the car while i shined the flashlight by the tailpipes and no smoke. Idled car for 5min. While it was ideling i watch the coolant overflow tank and noticed i didn't have as much in there. Use to the coolant would sit where the rubber hose is beside the tank but as the coolant temp got hot it would rise to an inch below the "add coolant" line. Now it got two inches below that line then shut down.

So now we have ruled out the intercooler possibly having a leak cause that fluid is sitting perfect

I pulled the dipstick & found nothing but oil on it. I then pulled every spark plug out & didnt find any liquid on them. However i did notice that all the white porceleon was WHITE with no brownish tint on any of them so i guess i'm running lean. Also the threads had quite a bit of what seemed like ash or crud on the threads. I did put anti seize on the threads. The part that hangs over the electrode seems to have whiteish spots on every plug. Which is odd cause that should mean i'm running lean but my wideband shows 10.9 wot with a high of 11.1. Or is the whitesh spots the coolant being burned? I REALLY hope its a headgasket & not a crack in a cylinder.

No smoke out exhaust
Car still pulls like a beast
Idles fine
Doesn't over heat
No coolant comming out the cap

 

[ZOSO]

If the ground strap on the plugs has some hard white stuff like its growing on it then you are burning coolant.

 

[Stalker27]

Damnit I was afraid someone might say that (sigh) this hurts

ok so we know what's going on, how can I diagnose where the actual problem is? I know the pressure tester, putting dye in the coolant and using a blacklight and doing a leak down. Which would be the best to use? I cant throw 1k at it. Also I'll most likely be doin all the work myself.

Another question, could it be possible that the water pump or the gasket leaking and coolant getting in that way? I ask cause I find it hard that I have two blown head gaskets. All 8 of the plugs have exactly what you described. In a lil while I'll pull all the plugs back out and take pics of them and post up

regardless is goin to sit now untill I get the problem resolved. Thanks for responding

 

[YoungJim]

If you haven't, shine a flashlight down each spark plug hole; if a cylinder is getting water in it the piston will likely be shiny. You could try a leakdown tester too, if air can get out of the cylinder and into the water jacket then water can get into the cylinder.

Jim

 

[Stalker27]

Yeah I know I'm going to do the pressure tester. Going to buy a new cap ($8) for the overflow to rule out one thing. Also while I was googling I ran across a thread they mentioned autozone sells a kit to test your headgaskets for $10.

Car is NOT smoking nor over heating.

 

[Silver03Termi]

my cap failed and it would spew coolant every now and then. Took me a while to figure out where it was coming from.

 

[Stalker27]

Mine has never spewed coolant out. Never seen a drop of coolant near the cap BUT I'm going to replace it for the pressure test so I can rule out one thing. While i was reading I came across a thread where a guy had a problem with his gt. He said he never saw coolant at the cap bought thought maybe steam could be releasing at the cap. He replaced it, burped the car and was fine ever since but I also don't recall him smelling a hint of coolant in his exhaust

 

[Quick Strike]

If the ground strap on the plugs has some hard white stuff like its growing on it then you are burning coolant.

Below is one that was burning a lot of coolant. Take yours out and let it dry a bit. See if it dries white like that one.

 

[cobracide]

Leakdown test time. Most likely head gasket.

 

[Stalker27]

Ouch!! My plugs look nothing like that. Bought a new cap for the overflow tank today and will be doing a pressure test tomorro then a compression check and possibly the leak down as well after that. I guess I'll know then

 

[Stalker27]

Welp it's official now. Deff a head gasket. I looked at my overflow tank and the coolant was all the way to the bottom. I opened the crossover then opened the overflow to put on my new cap for the overflow tank. Strange that soon as I opened it the tank that was previously all the way to the bottom magically filled up in front of my eyes to the add fill line. I put the cap on and put the funnel into the crossover so I could burp the car knowing I just created an air pocket from having both caps open.

After a few min at idle I started noticing blackish brownish dots floating in the coolant. I walked to the back and yep.. White smoke comming out pretty damn good but didn't smell all that sweet. Walked back to the front of the car and noticed ALOT more brownish spots floating in the coolant funnel. This is when I shut the car down and not even bothering with a pressure tester. Here's intresting: there is still nothing on the dipstick. I guess I caught it in time before any real serious damage was done.

Question, should I still do a leakdown?

I'm thinking of taking the motor out by dropping engine out from the bottom but wondering, what would be the best method of jacking ut up so high on the ground as I'm doing this myself and a couple really good friends helping along the way

For anyway that's ever taken a motor out from the botto
do you have any pointers that might help along the way?

 

[z28Eater]

Man I hate this for you Mike. Sucks big time. I'll help whenever dude let me know.

 

[Quick Strike]

Question, should I still do a leakdown?

I'm thinking of taking the motor out by dropping engine out from the bottom but wondering, what would be the best method of jacking ut up so high on the ground as I'm doing this myself and a couple really good friends helping along the way.

Did you see bubbles that did not stop in the crossover funnel? There would be more as you step on the gas. I would go ahead with your pressure test to confirm.

I could not find a safe way to drop the motor without a lift. I have to remove my K-member to take my the headers off for engine removal through the top. It would be so easy to drop the engine and trans down at that point, but I am not about to trust three feet or more of blocks under the SFCs. So, I use the engine support bar to hold up the engine and trans while removing the K-member and headers. Then I transition to the engine hoist, then drop the trans off the back of the engine with the trans jack, then, at last, hoist the engine and bell housing out the top. It would so much faster to have a lift or the use of one for engine removal!

 

[Stalker27]

Yeah there were constant very tiny bubbles. Like if you poured some sprite into a clear glass. Had those tiny bubbles then came the bigger bubbles and shortly after that I had the dreaded white smoke along with oil droplets in the coolant. So much so that after the coolant in the funnel went down the oil remained on the funnel

 

[Stalker27]

Man I hate this for you Mike. Sucks big time. I'll help whenever dude let me know.

Thanx bro!! Yeah it sucks but could be fun learning experience and like I said. I've been wanting to port my blower so here's the perfect time lol

 

[Stalker27]

Something just came to my mind. I have oil droplets in my coolant yes but I still don't have coolant on my dipstick. Yes the car was smoking but honestly it didn't smell sweet.

This is what came to mind. Could my oil cooler be causing this? I know that with it being faulty it will add oil droplets to the coolant but NOT coolant in oil.

I got the Pressure tester from autozone but I don't see how in the he'll I can get it to work with our cars

 

[cobracide]

Change the oil, read the plugs. Fix the head gasket(s).

 

[Stalker27]

Guys I honestly don't know what is goin on with this car. At this point i'm thinking its just F'n with me. The other night when i originally put on my new cap on overflow and burped the car i saw lil what i thought to be droplets of oil in the funnel as the car idled while i was burping. Also saw the car smoking out both tail pipes. So i shut it down, checked dipstick & still no coolant on the dipstick. Pulled all plugs out & let sit out overnight & not a one crystalized like the pic of plug above.

So the next morning (sunday) i check plugs & there fine, check dipstick..its fine. So i decided to burp the car again. This time while burping i had to add more didtilled water to it. I'd put a lil in and dissapear, put a lil more in and dissapear. Finally got it where it would stay where i wanted. Shut car off & it made 4 big burps & fluid went down.

NOW... What i dont understand is where & why there was an oily/water trail on the floor. I mean it was brownish water & deff had oil in it & it came off the passenger side of the block & quite a bit. I said F it i'm going to drive it & return that crappy ass pressure tester i rented

Drove it around for about an hour with a buddy of mine in his Cobra that just put a McLeod twin disk in his so where putting miles on it. The car did not once show any sign of over heating, didn't spew out the cap, pulled its ass off, no smoke of any kind, and idled just fine, and no smell of antifreeze out of the exhaust either. I'm baffled

 

[Parts-is-Parts]

Take oil cooler off, fix problem, enjoy your car the rest of the year.

You have a better chance of winning the lottery than it being a Head Gasket.