smoking engine, leaking coolant

[LthlThrt]

hello all, its late so ill get straight to business before my net drops out again, whenever i start my car up and give it a little gas smoke comes from the engine bay, i think it might be something is touching the covers, but i cant be sure i dont have anyone to check it, my car is also sitting on an agle to, would this affect it also? also seeing as im here still, my coolant has just started to randomly leak, but i havent driven it anywhere, it has just been sitting in the driveway, starting it up every couple days.

cheers

[S.T.K.E]

Sounds like your in a world of shit.
For the smoke could be the exhaust manifold gasket. Or the coolant leaking onto the extractors. I would suggest to have a look as well as your rocker covers. They could be leaking oil onto the extractors as well.
As for the coolant leaking. Could be anywhere. Check all pipes for splits and the radiator.

[LthlThrt]

Sounds like your in a world of shit.
For the smoke could be the exhaust manifold gasket. Or the coolant leaking onto the extractors. I would suggest to have a look as well as your rocker covers. They could be leaking oil onto the extractors as well.
As for the coolant leaking. Could be anywhere. Check all pipes for splits and the radiator.

f**king brilliant, its coming from under the battery? is there a reason why the gasket would fail? ot any of those, because the car has been stationary for some time now, just over 4 months, and this wasnt happening when i had my licence and the car was mobile. could it be because it has sat still for to long?

[Adds_05]

after sitting for a while,maybe it leaked a little bit of oil and its burning off now? i know when i've spilt oil after an oil change on the exhaust manifold,it will burn for about 5 minutes,really smokey etc

[LthlThrt]

ok im off to tafe now bu t ill get home a bit later so ill give that a go and have a llok around at everything else, i hope its fixed that easy, i dont have enough money to repair what might be broke.

[S.T.K.E]

Well see you said that the car has been sitting on a slant. The gaskets are cheap as shit and easy to replace.

And under the battery lol. Whats under the battery.... coolant. Could be the chance that your top radiator hose has a small split in it.

[LthlThrt]

sorry it was a big day and just to late for me, yea the coolant seems to form a nice little puddle on the floor under neath the battery, how would i be able to find the split? so if its been on a slant for to long that is bad for it?

[Ozzie]

you sure its smoke? not steam from the coolant hitting the extractors?

[ruffiano]

The smoke could be coolant on hot parts of the engine. When it's evaporated, coolent gives of heaps of smoke. Special effects groups in movies inject coolant into the final pipe of a cars exhaust (past the rear muffler) to create the 'smoke screen' effect used in spy movies.

Random piece of information...

[VT Owner]

If the smoke smells like burning oil rather than boiling coolant, it'll probably be that your rocker cover gaskets need replacing.

[LthlThrt]

im gunna go and have a n other loook seeing as its not raining now, ill try and get a video of it if i can get my neighbour to help out.

[LthlThrt]

good news the car isnt smoking anymore, i just went and tried it out, and it is fine now, thank god. but i cant tell if the coolant is still leaking because of the rain on the ground, and that is a nice bit of random information ruffiano. so if its not smoking anymore, would that limit where the coolant could be draining from?

[LthlThrt]

ok i just had my car running for a while and the coolant was leaking fairly fast,
i took some photos to show

[holdenvtman1123]

u need to check the hoses and the plastic running down the sides of th radiator. the photos u have taken r of coolant and not where the leak is actually coming from or could come from.

[LthlThrt]

yea i know i couldnt get to see where the coolant was coming from, but it comes out from there alot, my dad has got some stuff that you put in w/ the coolant and it seals it, sometimes it works completely othertimes its just temporary, so ill have to try dsome of that when i am home next.

[holdenvtman1123]

never add anything to your engine thats not oil or coolant. get the problem fixed now so the additives don't do damage later.

[wortus]

Could be cracked tanks on the radiator, a spot to check is where the top hose goes on. You really need to get it pressure tested or let it idle for a while until it pressurises and see where it is coming from. If the coolant dries it will leave a white residue. Other than that I'd look at the inlet manifold gasket and the O rings where some of the coolant pipes go into the engine near the water pump.

[LthlThrt]

never add anything to your engine thats not oil or coolant. get the problem fixed now so the additives don't do damage later.

i didnt put the stuff in it thankyou for the heads up, i couldve done some real damage.

[LthlThrt]

Could be cracked tanks on the radiator, a spot to check is where the top hose goes on. You really need to get it pressure tested or let it idle for a while until it pressurises and see where it is coming from. If the coolant dries it will leave a white residue. Other than that I'd look at the inlet manifold gasket and the O rings where some of the coolant pipes go into the engine near the water pump.

where would you go to get it pressure tested? is that at top where the top hose is? (stupid question i know)

[LthlThrt]

all fixed now, the hose had a split and it wasnt connected properly, so i just replaced it, no more leaking now, but i still havent fiqured out why it started leaking whilst it wasnt moving anywhere. anyway thanks for all your help

[gelousi]

it would most likely only leak once the motor is started and warmed up a little say after a few mins when the coolant gets warm it pressurizes thats when you get the leak coming

[Sabbath']

nevermind. fixed it.