Coolant leak.

[Hewlett67]

Hey guys. Im having trouble with coolant lose in my VE 3.6ltr. Cant find a trace of a leak anywhere. Have hardly been driving it because of the issue. Have been told its done an inlet manifold gasket but no coolant passes through the inlet manifold. Another mechanic said its blown a head gasket but i heard thats pretty rare for the alloytech. Its using a fair bit of coolant and have to top it up at the cap after i drive it. Have taken inlet manifold off and taken spark plugs out you can see that two on the passenger side are clean like water has gotten in. What do you guys think.

 

[DAJOKER]

Check the engine oil, if it’s milk shake colour, that’s a blown head gasket.

Coolants has to be going somewhere.

Most likely a head gasket man.

 

[Hewlett67]

Check the engine oil, if it’s milk shake colour, that’s a blown head gasket.

Coolants has to be going somewhere.

Most likely a head gasket man.

Engine oil is fine no sign of any water. If i pressure test the cooling system that should identify if its a head gasket?

 

[DAJOKER]

Hmmmmmm......

Well that’s an odd one then.

Pressure test would just show that it can’t hold proper pressure, not nesesserily where though, but give it a go.

Other than that, change the radiator cap - it’s $20, could be as simple as that, check the overflow bottle is still there and no holes in it as well.

 

[Hewlett67]

Check the engine oil, if it’s milk shake colour, that’s a blown head gasket.

Coolants has to be going somewhere.

Most likely a head gasket man.

Cap has been replaced. Overflow does have a leak when its overfilled. I would have thought if its losing coolant while driving that it would suck it back in via the overflow but the level never changes

 

[DAJOKER]

Well I’m just about out of ideas man.

Has to be going somewhere where though

 

[DavesSV6Tonner]

If there are no signs of any external coolant leaks then it must be being consumed in the combustion chambers.
I'm no expert but I reckon those two clean looking plugs would have to be the cylinders it's leaking into. BTW are the electrodes on your spark plugs supposed to be like that. At 90,000km mine looked like that because the electrodes were eaten away.
If you dose the cooling system up with corrosion inhibitor does the exhaust smell of burnt coolant?

I remember being behind a bloke in a VE V8 ute and I could smell the engine coolant coming from the exhaust.
There was a hill we had to negotiate and as we went up the hill he gunned it, next thing bang his exhaust started belching steam
and the smell of coolant was overwhelming. He quickly pulled over to find out what had happened.
I reckon he had a leaking head gasket and when he powered it up the hill it let go with a vengeance.

 

[Hewlett67]

If there are no signs of any external coolant leaks then it must be being consumed in the combustion chambers.
I'm no expert but I reckon those two clean looking plugs would have to be the cylinders it's leaking into. BTW are the electrodes on your spark plugs supposed to be like that. At 90,000km mine looked like that because the electrodes were eaten away.
If you dose the cooling system up with corrosion inhibitor does the exhaust smell of burnt coolant?

I remember being behind a bloke in a VE V8 ute and I could smell the engine coolant coming from the exhaust.
There was a hill we had to negotiate and as we went up the hill he gunned it, next thing bang his exhaust started belching steam
and the smell of coolant was overwhelming. He quickly pulled over to find out what had happened.
I reckon he had a leaking head gasket and when he powered it up the hill it let go with a vengeance.

I was thinking the same about those two clean plugs. There iridium plugs if thats how tou spell it. Thats the shape they are out of the box. If its a head gasket i might as well put another engine in it, would be easier. The only thing is that engines only done 140ks

 

[lmoengnr]

Give it a really stressful pressure test, do it when the engine is cold...

 

[greenacc]

If there's a decent leak it won't suck coolant back in when it cools cos it can't create a vacuum when to there's a hole in the system