Burning Coolant, Did a search looking for other opinions

[Dirty B]

OK guys I have searched and I have seen the common answers to the burning coolant threads but here are my specific details. I barely drive my car (03 with 17k miles) and before today I havent driven it in about 1 year (deployed most of the time). Well I took her out for a quick drive with no issues. All fluids checked prior to going out and everything filled. Well I got back home and all of a sudden she decided to start pouring white smoke out the back. Shut her down and my IC resovoir was completely empty. Of course smelled like coolant to me so came on here and did a search. Pulled the intercooler manifold off to take a look at the o-rings. Pic attached but they look pretty good to me. Now I know that a bad head gasket could be a culpurt but I had a compression and leak down test done last year and it came back clean. I've only put on 300 or so miles since then, I know I could lose a head gasket in that time but I dont drive it like I stole it so I dont think thats the problem. Besides a cracked cylinder or other major fault are there any other "smaller" issues (such as the o-rings) that I can check before I go for the $1k search and rescue mission? I am going to pull the plugs tomorrow to try and get more info but as of now any other ideas? Thanks.



KB 2.2, Gouds Heat Exchanger, supporting mods...

http://dirtyb.boxwithlights.com/cobra/FILE0039.JPG

http://dirtyb.boxwithlights.com/cobra/FILE0040.JPG

 

[SonicBlueOval]

The o-rings would have been my guess. They dont look horrible, but anything is possible with the car sitting that long. Depending on what coolant you are running you may have had a freezing issue and cracked the intercooler. Was there coolant sitting in your lower manifold? You can try pushing air through the intercooler in the coolant holes to see if any remaining coolant shoots out somewhere else. Otherwise go ahead and replace the o-rings since you have it apart and try running it again.

 

[Dirty B]

thanks for the reply. I didnt see any coolant in the lower when I pulled the intercooler manifold off but I had much already drained the whole system before I decided to pull it apart. I ordered the new o rings and hopefully that will take care of the issue...

 

[SonicBlueOval]

Cool, let us know if that takes care of it. For the IC reservoir to be empty and there to be a burning coolant smell it has to be from that area. Hope you get to enjoy your car soon. Thanks for your service overseas