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Road trip ends in disaster!!

Jerd

Jerd

Active member
Joined
Mar 1, 2008
Location
Vancouver WA
Grrrrrrrrrr.

I was on my way home from a 375 mile trip when though the canyon my car started getting hot and i thought i could smell antifreeze so i pulled over and my worst fear had appeared, i had no coolant at all in my car. Luckly my uncle was fallowing me and had a jug of water we dumped it in and i high tailed it out of the canyon we got out of it and i was out of water again. So i searched my car found two bottles of water and some soda. So i dumped in the water and drove slow and steady until we came up to a gas station filled the jug with water dumped it in. Filled up the jug again. About 10 minutes later my car was getting hot again pulled over and dumped the entire gallon of water in. Then on its last legs had to stop at a few lights and finally got to my house.

My uncle who was fallowing me said that it was pretty much a solid stream at points in time.

But when we are stopped and even when the car is idling it just drips. It seemed to get worse the further we went.

Its coming from the midle to rear of the block. all the hoses that i can see are good and the radiator its self is not leaking the overflow isnt leaking..

Im thinking it could possibly be head gasket. I hope not, but possibly.

What else is towards the rear of the engine that could be leaking.

Cracked block???? Doubt it but where should i look?



Car: 1991 245 b230f w/ 168,000k
 
I looked more and its leaking from under the intake manifold far back. And its a pretty good leak. It emptied the over flow tank in about 45 seconds. I cant really see what it is.

Will i need to take the intake manifold off?

Will i need an intake manifold gasket? Will i need anything else if i take it off?

Im thinking its a heater hose.. if those hold coolant.
 
heater hoses are ones that fail fairly commonly along with rad hoses, they still last a long time though. They take coolant from the engine to the heater core in the passenger compartment. You shouldn't have to remove the intake, especially if you have skinny arms like me. Just get a light in there so you can see.
Both hoses attach to the firewall just behind/below the brake cyl. One attaches to the head right below 4cyl, the other to return hose from the water pump just behind the head.
Replace both while you're at it.
 
When I did mine I removed the intake...makes it easier. Of course, my HG also leaked from that same spot. (just not that fast)

Sounds like heater hoses to me.
 
Woo okay im excited its not something really bad.

Thanks guys.

I may take the intake manifold off sense im swapping out cams and doing some other things too.

Might clean injectors/ some porting on the intake mani.
 
Be sure to check under your carpets for coolant. I recently had a leak from the heater hose, and it was weeping through to the inside of the firewall.
 
Thanks ill take a look, you guys rock!

Im going to call some local stores to see if they have the hoses.
 
auto zone had two. Is that all there is?

I found the leak theres a big split in the hose its the one you can clearly see going into the firewall.
 
Sounds very fimiliar.

I was driving back from las vegas in my somewhat new '92 745Ti (new to me, not miles..) with a bunch of friends. A leak started, i saw my temp go up.. pulled over, no coolant. Put a gallon of water in, started the car. could see water coming out as a STREAM from somewhere in the back exhaust side of the engine. ****. Filled her up, drove another 20 miles, temp goes up. Pulled over, added more water. Kept doing this for about another 100 miles until it got so bad we were losing a gallon in like 10 minutes. At this point, it was like 2:30am and we were all tired, hung over, and generally delerious, so we got a hotel room.

The next morning, I crawled under the car, and the coolant line running from the block coolant lines to the oil cooler assembly had a visible hole in it, it was quite clear. Somehow a mechanical friend and I managed to hack in a coolant line we picked up at a gas station with some supplies across from the hotel (it was kinked badly, but held!)

Once I got the line off, i had a good look at it. It was TOAST. All cracked up, thing looked like it went through a world war. Honestly if it weren't for the quality of the hose volvo first used, it would have just blown up with probably engine-killing results. Instead it just leaked a lot and gave lots of warning. For this reason, i only use the volvo branded coolant hoses.. they really are much better quality than the average reman stuff, imo.

Apart from that, my current DD has a leak in the same area.. unfortunately this time it's a seeping head gasket. For now i'm just keeping her topped up. but that area seems to be a very common failure area for the HG (seen 3 of 3 blown head gaskets i've done in that area). I'd guess one of those two. good luck!

A tip or two for all: if you don't have access to water or coolant mix, you can put DIET soda in the system. It will work great. Don't use regular soda, the sugar will destroy the system.
If you have a slow but risky leak (not one this bad), drop an egg in the coolant system (not the expansion tank, have to put it into the main line), it will act as a good temporary stop leak and should get you 100's of miles home.
 
I've had cracked heater hoses that only leaked when the car was driven (and the hose was flexed enough to open up the crack). At idle, I could NOT find the leak until I revved the engine up to about 4000 rpm while standing over it and I saw a splatter of coolant come out. The inner radius of one of my heater hoses was barely split.
 
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