crazy coolant leak

[josh green]

Well i have narrowed down a few problems with the car that I bought and am getting closer to being able to drive it every day except I have a coolant leak. Now the funny part about it is, the coolant is disappearing. I fill and bleed the coolant system and then 10-15 min down the road the car is wanting to over heat and there is no coolant to be seen in the lines where the cap is. I say it is disappearing b/c there is NO drip or any coolant on the ground where the car is parked. I hear its common that the water pump leak on the dsm's but I think that this is not the case since there would be a drip if water was gathering in the timing cover. The hoses aren't leaking and the radiator is brand new. Lastly the car does not smoke at all, but a friend of mine is going to let me borrow his snap-on head gasket leaker thingy tool but I though that if you were burning coolant that it would smoke and you could smell it burning. If anyone has a suggestion or has had the same problem it would be great.

I cannot wait to get this thing up and running well, its quiet, has p/s and will have a/c soon for the coming warm weather.

 

[GotTurbo11]

Where are you filling from, the cap or the res.?

Are you sure you are filling the system to capacity? I know it sounds silly, but believe it or not, if you fill to the line, then run the car, it will open the T-stat and suck in your new coolant.

However, once it's done this, it will be looking for more simply because you have not filled it up enough yet. When it cannot find anymore, it will try to run its cycle, but will not have a sufficient amount to keep the engine cool, which would explain why you are

A) over heating
B) missing coolant
but C) not finding any on the ground or seeing it burned off.

You simply havn't filled and " burped" the system

 

[josh green]

how much coolant does the engine hold? one night a friend and I bled the system for 45 min. making sure that there were no air bubbles and that it was full. While we were filling it we would rev the motor some every now and then and let it idle for long amounts of time until the water level went down. We let the car idle long enough for the fan to kick on. That night we put in 2 whole gallons of 50/50 along with what was in the system, to the same result. When i put the cap back on I could clearly see fluid there at the top.

p.s. the radiator light in the dash hasnt come on so I suppose that its not low enough to trigger the sensor.

 

[jeremy19984g63]

if the cap is bad when the engine get hot it will push the coolant out into the res. After it has filled res. full, it will blow it out the overflow while your driving

 

[WillyC]

The system holds 2 gallons. Your passenger floor board isn't flooded is it? Could be leaking out of the heater core.

 

[CTR67]

If you get the system properly filled and burped and still have the problem there are a few things you can try. Get a hold of a coolant system pressure tester and test the system, if it loses pressure during the test there is a leak somewhere. If determine there is a leak but still see no signs of it externally, pressure test it with the spark plugs out and make sure the cylinders do not fill with coolant. It is true that head gasket leaks will usually cause smoke but only if it is leaking into the cylinder. It is much less common but also possible for the head gasket to leak between a coolant jacket and an oil return, you can find that by checking to make sure there is no coolant in your oil. Good luck finding the problem.