losing coolant

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jacksdodges

jacksdodges

jacksdodges
Joined
Dec 27, 2009
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Location
Little Rock Ar,
I keep losing water somewhere and its not leaking out. I start it up in the shop and it doesn't blow water and sut on my garage door which is about 2 feet from the tailpipe. I think if I had a leaking head gasket it would blow stuff on the door. It will lose about a 1/2 gallon per tank of gas 250 miles. I was going to pull the plugs and look at them but havnt yet. This is also strange I started it up and it was ideling for a minute and I check the headers to see how hot they were . They were all in the 600 range except # 8 it was 279 degree. It so happens #8 has a sleave in it which I don't think would matter. It doesn't run hot and has about 25000 miles on the motor. Its a stroked 340/418. This just started a couple month ago. I have not replaced the rad cap yet because it looks good and is fairly new. Going to do that when I get off here.
 
Have you checked your passenger side floor board to see if the heater core is leaking?

Go to one of the parts stores and get a radiator pressure tester. Most have them on the tool loan program.
 
If a head gasket leak, I think you would see oily "brown mousse" floating in the radiator. I did when my 82 Aries 2.5L leaked. 1/2 gal in 250 miles could be getting lost as steam, which you might not see. My sister's 65 Mustang 6 cyl kept over-heating on a long trip (needed water every 100 miles) long ago. A mechanic in the VA mountains said it must be the head gasket since happened to his brother Billy Bob in a 50's Chevy. He wanted big bucks and days delay, so we continued. Next shop found a pin-hole leak in a heater hose and fixed it for $5. It only started when pressure got up and left no visible water. Good luck finding it.
 
"Next shop found a pin-hole leak in a heater hose and fixed it for $5. It only started when pressure got up and left no visible water"

THIS ^^^

I had a car years ago that had the same problem you had....losing a little water but couldn't see any wetness anywhere....racked my brains and time for days trying to figure it out.....Turned out there was a tiny pinhole in one of the hoses spraying a fine spray stream of water (could hardly see it) straight up and into the hood insulation...Is was so fine you couldn't hear it hissing either....And it would only leak when at full temp and pressurized.....what little spray was coming out would then get evaporated by the engine compartment heat.....So let your car get up to temp and pressure and inspect all hoses very carefully...
 
Or a hairline crack in the head, in one of the water passages -- number 8 seems to be a common location for this. In my case it just oozed out and evaporated -- you wouldn't see it because it was under the exhaust manifold, and it only leaked when hot.
 
I had a car years ago that had the same problem you had....losing a little water but couldn't see any wetness anywhere....racked my brains and time for days trying to figure it out.....Turned out there was a tiny pinhole in one of the hoses spraying a fine spray stream of water (could hardly see it)
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Exactly the same (wifes late model ford) had even redone the head thinking it was a porous head spent nearly 12 months before finding it by chance one day after a long run had to refill the washer bottle as it ran out on the drive got home popped the hood and saw the fine spray coming out of a heater hose was hitting the block and evaporating straight away,
 
Can you smell the coolant after it gets hot ad you shut it off? I would pressurize the system with air and spray soap on everything and look for bubbles. I think Harbor Freight sells cooling system pressure checker's fairly cheap if you don't have one.
 
My Father had a Jeep truck that would quit every day after about 2-3 miles of driving, and we could'nt figure out why.
I always started right back up, but would quit again after being driven for a few min.

It ended up being a hose with a super small pinhole and it was spraying right on the distributor cap but drying off before we could see it.

Really the only reason I found it was there was a bit of stuff like hard water deposits on the cap.
 
usually you would smell any external residual coolant... good indication of a leak..
 
You can leave a deposit at Auto zone / O 'Reillys for a cooling system pressure tester (return in useable shape,a complete refund ) Have you tried this yet?.....
 
Sorry about the slow response ive been out of town. I will try to answer the questions. My right side carpet is dry so thank goodness no leaking heater, and I don't smell any coolant ever. I ran my hand around the heater hoses when I drove in and no pinholes there. Stopped by parts house and they didnt have a pressure tester. I will try to find one tomorrow. If the head gasket is blown its in the water jacket. My oil and water in rad. look good. I will go check it in a while and see how much water it used. thanks for all the help any more ideas ??
 
jacksdodges said:
I check the headers to see how hot they were . They were all in the 600 range except # 8 it was 279 degree. It so happens #8 has a sleave in it
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right there. is where the problem is. As said rent the coolant pump & get it hot & pump it up to 15 lbs & let it set & check after several minutes then after an hour then overnight if needed but I believe you will need to go into it/pulling the head.
 
Rapid Robert said:
right there. is where the problem is. As said rent the coolant pump & get it hot & pump it up to 15 lbs & let it set & check after several minutes then after an hour then overnight if needed but I believe you will need to go into it/pulling the head.
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I'm leaning your way Robert ^^^^^^^^.

Sure sounds like a issue with the #8 cylinder/gasket to me.......Sorry Jack.
 
my dart was losing coolant for awhile could never find it no visible leaks all the gaskets were good found it when I pulled motor for rebuild it was freeze on back of motor and it was barely holding
 
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