steveeb

I have a small coolant leak in my rebuilt B16A2 engine. It's so slow that it never reaches the floor. The water in the coolant evaporates leaving a thick build up of dried coolant. What you see is about 5 days (400 miles) worth of build up. Any idea where it might be coming from? All new hoses and nothing appears to be coming from any connections. What you see is where it starts and stops.

Wdpfreak145

To my knowledge there are not any coolant passages there near the bell housing. Could it be running down from under the distributor?

B_Swapped93

X2^

that doesn't really look like coolant tho more like green pudding lol.

grumblemarc

iTrader: (4)

Probably right from that sensor.

EsotericImage

iTrader: (8)

Or could be a small tiny crack in the plastic Radiator and shooting a small stream while under load..the fan kicking on will make it evaporate rather quickly..


I recommend taking a nice little run thru the gears, pull over and check.

Wdpfreak145

x2 for this. So stupid that automotive companies switched to plastic endcaps on their radiators. Same thing happened to me and I wound up replacing it with a Godspeed Project all aluminum radiator and I have no problems now.

steveeb

I'm running a Fluidyne aluminum radiator. The OEM bit the dust a long time ago. No leaks from radiator or hoses. I warmed the engine and took this photo. You can't see it but I marked where I can see a tiny amount of seepage. It pools at that lower horizontal ridge then when that gets full it drips down. I also "dammed" up the path above the drips with hi-temp gasket where indicated in photo. Nothing coming from above.

NOTE: The lines showing where it bubbles from are delineating the area the seeping occurs. Basically along that whole seam between the two horizontal ridges on the trans.

EsotericImage

iTrader: (8)

nothing between those spots but a flywheel and clutch. i dont know what to tell you besides to look everywhere and if you cant find anything, then you might have to pull off the trans and take a look.


Could a pressure plate shatter and gouge the block area? maybe.

I doubt the whole clutch area has coolant in it, its the bubbling that has me stumped.

tlarimer

iTrader: (3)

Steve,

It could be residual coolant that leaked down, from the head gasket job, into the bell housing area and is being forced out by the rotating flywheel/clutch combo.

Or, As Grumble stated, it could be one of those sensors under the distributor leaking a tiny amount, running down between the block/transmission and being forced out lower down the mating surface.

steveeb

UPDATE: The engine now has almost 700 miles on it since the rebuild and the coolant leak has not stopped. I cleaned the gunk from the original photo and it has built up gain. For those of you thinking it's coming from the sensors, it is not. It's dry as a bone under the sensors, all sensors have had liquid gasket applied to the threads. I check the car every day, sometimes more than once.

Oil is clean and full, radiator remains full. I haven't had to add coolant in the radiator (filled to the cap), but the reservoir loses a couple ounces per 100 miles.

I'm am thankful that, at least, the coolant isn't being burned off anymore and it should pass smog. The longer this continues the more sure I am that it's a crack in the block behind the flywheel that I didn't/couldn't see when the head was off. Next step will be pulling the trans to see what's going on. It's in need of a clutch anyway.