pissing out coolant

[spidy3]

I beat on my car pretty bad the other night (high rpm driving from 2nd to 4th). got to my destination and set turbo timer for 8 mins. a couple mins into it my coolant started pouring out of my overflow tube. temp gauge in car didnt show overheating. got home and filled up coolant bottle again. the next night my coolant was gone again but i didnt really beat on my car. (worst that day was highway driving doing about 75) any suggestions? thermostat? it also looks like smoke is coming from bottom of radiator or under turbing housing. after i drive it and open the hood.


Thanks,

Dom

91 tsi awd

 

[jesepes]

I recommend finding where the coolant is going. If there is a leak in the system somewhere, doing a pressure test will help find it. You can use Mityvac pressure/vacuum pump to put pressure on the coolant system. Autozone(parts store) has a system tester you can rent too. (My local store's kit didn't have the right adapter for my radiator fill port though.)
Also check your tailpipe for white smoke/steam. If you smell coolant in the exhaust or have plumes of steam in the exhaust then the head gasket is bad.

Now I'll offer my recent personal experience on my coolant system trouble. My car would overheat after being driven hard. I noticed a full/mostly full reservoir and air bubbles coming out of the overflow tube (in the reservoir.) If I drove conservatively my car would not overheat. One thing to note is that I have about 500 miles on a fresh rebuild(so new headgasket.) I first replaced the thermostat and rad. cap. This didn't help. I determined that, in my case, pressurized air was getting into my cooling system through the headgasket. That was why I had bubbles coming out of my reservoir tube. In my case retorquing the headbolts fixed my problem. I had to turn them about 1/8 of a turn each to get back to the correct torque spec. I estimated that equated to about .010".
Not knowing your car's history makes this particuar solution seem less likely, or at least less likely to fix an old headgasket that is leaking.

One other thing to note is that I used a composite headgasket in my car. If you replace yours, know that milling the cylinder head surface is going to be required if you use a MLS gasket. You may need to have it milled even for a composite gasket. The point here is that MLS gaskets are picky about flatness of head/block and will blow easily if everything is not perfectly flat. Please consider that if you do indeed need to replace your headgasket. Also have the head measured for flatness while it's off.
Good luck, and I hope it's nothing major like a headgasket.
-Jesse

 

[spidy3]

I replaced my head gasket about 20k miles ago when I did a P&P on my head, I dont remember what kind it was, just a stock replacement from advanced auto i think. I'll try and do a pressure test on it soon. isnt there usually coolant in the oil when a headgasket goes? or not usually on these cars? and thanks for writing a response and helping out.



Dom

 

[jesepes]

From my own personal experience with my DSM's coolant problem there was no coolant in the oil. Although usually when a head gasket goes there is. Frankly, and this is just my opinion, I'd zip the valve cover off and retorque the bolts. No harm done if they are fine. But if not you don't even have to mess around with the coolant. When I reassembled my engine I reused the factory bolts that were in there. I also torqued them to 72ft-lbs. per my maintenance manual. Please don't take my word for the torque and not look it up for yourself. I would hate to have a finger pointed at me because of this. I'm just saying that's what I torqued mine to.
Good luck, let me know,

 

[ITSME4G63]

look for cracked coolant hoses, let your car warm up at idle, then from the inside of the engine bay press on the throttle and see if if you see coolant sweign out of a line? look for where the white smoke is coming form.