Water going missing

[Mick from trundle]

Hi Guys
I have a 1988 VN Executive which has a perculiar problem.
I fill the radiator water bottle up to the cold mark. I can drive it n a trip and it will use all the water down to about 1/4" to 1/2" from the bottom.
The only place I can see it leaking, it has rusted the rear muffler out and it drips out onto the ground. Also when it is idling there is steam coming out of the muffler as well.
Do you think it is a head gasket or the valley's in between V underneath the injectors etc.
It does not seem to miss fire or anything probably just runs a bit rough when idling.
Any help would be appreciated
Many thanks
Mick

[Brett_jjj]

Its most likely the inlet manifold gasket(s) are leaking,its fairly easy and cheap to replace them.The inlet manifold gaskets leaking is fairly common on the V6 when they get old.You can get the cooling system pressure tested to verify the inlet manifold gaskets are causing the trouble.It probably wouldnt hurt to get the engine compression tested as well,just in case it is a leaking/blown head gasket,but seeing as its running ok still,I highly doubt that the head gasket would be the problem.These tests are cheap to get done.

[havavb]

I had the same problem except it was my thermo fan not working. So the car chewed the shit out of water. Try giving it a top-up of coolant and check your thermo fan best way to do it is get the connector things from the fuse. But somehow just have them in the top and bottom part. I know it sounds confusing but i will post an image tomorrow. Because then the fan will run as soon as the key is switched to acc.

[Mick from trundle]

Thanks guys any answers are appreciated. I do most of the mechanical stuff myself as I cannot afford the $80-$100 hour the Holden garages charge and they put an apprentice on to do the job and pay them $10 an hour. I have principles. LOL