[Kracin]

ok... the bad..

lose coolant after driving.. the radiator always has coolant present in it when opening the cap after parking. not necesarilly full to the brim with coolant, but enough.... and the reservoir eventually will settle way way down to almost nothing left even after filling.

i have no coolant leaks.

i have no problem with pressure, just pressure tested it up to 23 psi.

i will have heat until the system goes through the coolant and then i lose heat and the coolant level in the reservoir becomes low.

can't smell any coolant with the heater on and blower on, no coolant smell inside the car.


have never overheated.

engine never feels excessively hot even after hard runs.

never had a problem with oil or water looking the wrong color.

i haven't noticed an excessive amount of white smoke at any time.. startup or boost. every once in a while i will see a little bit, but nothing to make me lose that much coolant that fast.




what could the issue be?

 

[FLINTSTONESKID]

Are you sure there is no air in the system?

i will have heat until the system goes through the coolant and then i lose heat and the coolant level in the reservoir becomes low.

also, can you clarify this....

 

[grim_reaper]

7m revenge!

do a block test and leak down test. Smell the overflow bottle, mine had a slight teng of exhaust when the HG started leaking. I also got a few tiny bubbles after boost runs in the overflow. I DD a suspected leaking HG for 2 years before it finally gave up the ghost and started consuming coolant. Pull the plugs after a hard run and when cold, look for anything wet on the piston. After a hard run I noticed "wet" carbon on the piston tops on one cylinder. This symptom was only noticed after a failed block test though and planned motor rebuild.. Mine only acted up under heavy boost until I made it worse.

hard boost runs= higher res. coolant levels that took a day or two to return to "normal".
normal= no boost just general a-b runs. coolant level stayed consistent.
it was all down hill from there until it started drinking it..

you should leave the rad cap on for a few days so it can stabilize. other wise your working against the design of the system.

 

[Mr Ree NZ]

Is the radiator cap in perfect condition? High enough rate spring etc?

 

[Kracin]

Are you sure there is no air in the system?



also, can you clarify this....

if there is air in the system, its not pushing any coolant out. if i had air it would expand enough to put tons of pressure in the system and eventually cause my overflow to... overflow, after hard driving, everything was still dry and the overflow was at the same level.


and i meant i have heat through my heater core flowing. and it will stop providing heat once something happens.




it was a brand new radiator cap 6 months ago.

under full heat, it doesnt allow coolant to pass by, but is still under pressure, i could test it, or just buy another one just to be safe. doubting its the cap though.

 

[FLINTSTONESKID]

^^^gotcha, and i think you are right, but it couldnt hurt to jack the front end up and remove the cap just to see if you can get any air out of the system. i have heard that a tiny bit of air can wreak havoc. at this point, its probably one of the easier things to try along with testing the cap.

 

[SUPRASSS]

i had a leak behind the intake manifold through the iacv water lines.never noticed it.consumed 1/2 of water every week.it didnt leak when the car was cold.leave your car stationary in operating temperature and check for leaks underneath

 

[Kracin]

i had a leak behind the intake manifold through the iacv water lines.never noticed it.consumed 1/2 of water every week.it didnt leak when the car was cold.leave your car stationary in operating temperature and check for leaks underneath

pressurized the entire system to 23 psi (stock max psi it reaches under load is 21.3)

no leaks, no coolant smells.





i did try to burp the system as good as possible last night. jacked up the front end SUPER high, bumper was almost chest height.. ended up letting it run with the cap off while filling it and squeezing hoses as much as possible before the fluid seemed to stop being consumed.


been driving for a while and it seems to have stopped eating coolant.... i may have had an air bubble somewhere in the system that i couldn't have gotten rid of because of the blocked heater core.... so now that i unclogged the heater core the other day, that air finally made its way out of the system after the super high end burping action.


betting that air was expanding after the car was heating up, causing excess pressure and pushing my coolant out of the cap............

ill update after a couple more days of driving but i think i may have finally gotten it after unclogging th eheater core and opening up the passage to the trapped air.

 

[Kracin]

so i checked again after a couple more drives, looks like it holding fluid better, but still dropping down by about a centimeter after every hard drive, after cooling down.


only thing i can think of that could be happening with an entirely closed system that is pressure tested fine with no leaks. is that my rad cap MAY be faulty even though its new....