Loosing water but no obvious leaks

[DavesSV6Tonner]

I remember being behind a VE SS ute and there was a distinct smell of cooked coolant and some wisps of vapour emitting from the exhaust.
Poor guy, I think he was showing off a bit. He gunned it up the hill and as he approached the crest the engine finally **** itself. Huge plumes of steam from the exhaust and he quickly came to a halt in the middle of the road. Must admit I was laughing my head off as I cruised past on his left hand side.

Don't dick around with coolant leaking into an engine, get your mechanic to diagnose and fix the problem if you are not sure of what and how to fix it yourself.

 

[Immortality]

@Vin999 & @vc commodore please keep your personal issues out of public threads!

Thread cleaned.

 

[Vin999]

Thanks for the cleanup @immortality

 

[BrettsGrange]

Your plenum gasket is probably leaking at the back of your motor...reasonably common fault with the ecotec

 

[hademall]

My 1999 VT equip is loosing lots of water but there is none pooling or dripping under the car and the oil is not the typical milky chocolate you get when it leaks in, so I am suspecting its the manifold gasket(s)... any other likely exit routes ?

Sid

May be a long shot. Is the radiator sound? I had a new XF Falcon back in 86. Every time I checked the water in the radiator it was low! Took it back to Jefferson Fraud to be told by the service guy that I just needed to tighten up the hose clamps with a screwdriver! Needless to say, I told him it was a new car and that I shouldn’t have to be tightening anything up. So he could shove the screwdriver where the sun don’t shine! Twelve months later, after the warranty expired of course, I took it to a radiator guy who told me the radiator was leaking due to a very tiny hole, which was not significant enough to show it leaking. However, it did leak under extreme temperature in the form of steam! The guy said there was a possibility of a manufacturing fault in the radiator from new!
Just saying.

 

[Representative]

Long shot here but it took me a while to figure out that I was losing water from my over flow bottle. I never realised because it would only leak once it became pressurized and hot and would spit bits of coolant into the overflow and dumps it through a hole on the road. Leading me oblivious for months.

 

[z900collector]

Your not necessarily loosing water, but consuming it without you knowing.
[probably constant steam/condensation out of the exhaust]
I had the exact same problem, and doing the LIM Gaskets and flushed the motor a fair few times to get the gunk out,
and it’s not losing/consuming water now.

This makes good sense and is what I suspected could also happen... When the weather cools down a bit I will pull it apart and re-check the gaskets... might also check if the car is blowing steam out the radiator or hoses as suggested also.

 

[hademall]

This makes good sense and is what I suspected could also happen... When the weather cools down a bit I will pull it apart and re-check the gaskets... might also check if the car is blowing steam out the radiator or hoses as suggested also.

How did you go?

 

[ChocolateCharlie]

I had coolant loss in the VX and the milky goo. Just replaced the manifold gaskets today, (thanks for the excellent write up Hot-Rod). Just follow the procedure and you should go alright, I've never been that deep into the engine before. After a long day I decided to quickly change the oil and filter and cross threaded the filter! Arrgghhhh, never done that before. The filter nut got stuck on the filter when I unscrewed it and came out and I need to replace it. Anyone know what this threaded nut is called?

 

[z900collector]

How did you go?

The water loss stopped for a while and then came back, on afternoon I parked the car and then heard boiling water rumble through the cap. I squeezed the overflow and it stopped, so I suspect a new cap is in order!

Went to visit the Holden Dealership at Newmarket only to find the building demolished, so I will stop in at Repco soon and get a new cap.

What's the deal with Holden Dealers? are they all out of business? Where do people get OEM parts from now?