My car is eating about 1/4 gallon of coolant a week for the past month. I have done everything I know to figure it out. Any suggestions?

No smoke, no sweet smell, no collant on the garage floor. Freshly rebuilt motor is about 2500 miles old.

Thanks.

 

ttt for kyle.

 

Never had enough to begin with??? Compression check???

 

I know your motor is sleeved, have you tried using BAR's stop leaks? GE recommends it.

 

If you have access to a cooling system pressure tester, just pressurize the cooling system from the radiator and monitor pressure drop and possible leaks. It has to be leaking somewhere....

 

did you bleed the coolant when you first putting everything back on ?

and yeah, use the bar's leak as well

stan

 

If there wasn't enough at first, there definately is now. I have put 2 gallons in the last month or so.

No BARs in it right now. I just got a new radiator and I am doing the flush, change coolant soon. Hopefully this weekend.

The coolant has been bleed a few times. I am going to do some serious leak hunting tomorrow before I swap the radiators.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Kyle

 

Im sure you have done this but ill post anyways. Check the oil for coolant mixing. Yeah I just got my motor up and running also (GE Sleeved LS-Vtec). Had the same exact problem you are having and it turns out my cometic gasket is the proiblem (or at least i hope). Im swithing out to a bored stock one , car should be in the shop within week. Keep us updated on this. Just take your oil cap off and look at the inside of it. If you have a milky substance on there it means you have headgasket probs. Good Luck

 

My b18a eats coolant too- no smell, no smoke, no nothing. I had just assumed it was my headgasket, but now I'm not too sure. It still runs fine, so maybe I'll just leave it.

 

Had the same problem with the gem block.. Coolant was disappearing and it was with a stock head gasket and o-ring. Losing coolant but no noticeable sweet smell in the exhaust etc. It was the head gasket and o-ring problem. Copper crushed too far down and it eventually began leaking coolant into the cylinders and losing coolant in the radiator.. One quick way to tell if this is your problem, is to look under your oil cap and see if you see any condensation or white looking snot. Also pull off your valve cover and look closely at the oil around the cam plates etc and see if you see any coolant in there. I really couldn't notice it when I drained the oil. It was easier to see the coolant when I pulled off the valve cover, especially since it was a small amount and some of the coolant was getting burnt off in the combustion chambers. Head should be torqued down to 79-82 ft lbs with ARP studs... May just need to re-torque the head if it isn't blown...

 

Kyle,
pull your spark plugs and look at the color of the tips. If one of them looks considerably white compared to the others then you know you are leaking coolant into your cylinders. Do you feel a loss of power at all? Are you getting air in your coolant lines when you bleed it at the thermostat? To me it sounds like a headgasket failure. Have you put the car up on jackstands and inspected the entire block? I had a bad headgasket a few months ago and i couldnt see anything until i was underneath the car looking at the back of the block when i discovered a small leak. Chances are if you are leaking you wont see it puddle up because it will evaporate when it touches your hot block.

 

DAMN IT IS COLD. My fingers are friggen freezing even with the garage. Anyways, I looked for everything. I had 3 halogen lamps out, and flourscent hand light, up on jackstands, down on all 4, radiator cap on, radiator cap off, cold motor, hot motor. I checked everything i could think of and all the things you guys said. No signs, no apparent problems. Just missing coolant. I think I will try to retorque the head and see if that works. But then again, if I go thru all that work I might as well take the head off and do a new headgasket.

ANYONE HAVE A VTEC head for sale? If I could kill 2 birds with one stone it would make it a lot more fun. Alright, thanks for the tips guys...send me an IM or e-mail if you have a head for me. Anyone know what one costs new?

Thanks,

Kyle

 

drain the oil and see whats in there. Might be the block?

 

Mine was doing the same thing on my newly rebuilt LS motor. Then tuesday night it the motor got warm and no heat blew out of the heater, then about 2 mintues later my engine blew or something went wrong. I been tearing it all apart tonight.

 

Im thinking i might have this problem.....

Kyle,
pull your spark plugs and look at the color of the tips. If one of them looks considerably white compared to the others then you know you are leaking coolant into your cylinders.

what is the problems with this happening long term.. as my 1 and 4 always seem to be white... compaired to 2 and 3 plugs... at first i thought it was the air flow on my JG intake mainfold.. but im thinking its somehting else now.... coolent levels also drop slightly now and then...

but im very soon going to take my boost from 1 bar to 2 bar... so yeah.. knowing the side effects of coolent in the clynders.. is yeah kinda concering.. hav't hurd about that untill now..

Regards James

 

Going through the same EXACT problem with my GE block, i don't ever blame anyone for this but it is kinda strange considering theres more then one person with similar problems.

I began drinking coolant without any motor problems and PERFECT compression all the way across the board. I finally found a very small amount of coolant in the oil. Pulled the head and swapped a stock headgasket with good o-rings. Ran good fro 2 days and then coolant overflow filled up with oil. Still drove fine under NO BOOST but I decided to pull the motor and locate the problem again. So I just haven't done it yet.....I guess i will have to see if I can figure out what I am doing wrong here. GE was helpfully to a certain extent.