TOMAS7

I don't have any smptoms, my car runs strong but the coolant leak is untraceable except for the rear corner of the motor which leads me to believe it's the head gasket.
Suggestions or ideas appreciated.
Thanx.

Always Overcharged

than what you have noted-if the gasket is blown between a cell containing oil and one containing water then you will get water in your oil.
If there is loss of compression because of a leak from the cylinder then you will have loss of power-even miss fire.
If it is only a small loss of coolant and no mixing of oil and water then don't panic as sooner or later you will have to deal with it and do the heads and if so then planing them will be part of the process.
Just don,t let the coolant run out and overheat the engine

TOMAS7

I guess that's what I have a leak from the water jacket to the outside.
My tech quoted me $1,200 plus miscellaneous to do both sides from what I've seen, it's not a bad price.

PaulW

You don't know if that's your actual problem. How often to you add coolant?

SCL

I had that problem on a supercharged T-bird. It ran great, but kept eating antifreeze with no trace of it on the ground. None got in the oil either, so I think it was blowing it out the tail pipe. Eventually it got worse and began to run rough.

The dealer put two head gaskets in.. for only 1200 for parts and labor <--funny huh...the audi dealer would probably charge 5K. After that it ran fine, but still used a little bit of antifreeze, and it never caused any further problem, except I had to top off the coolant every month or so.

Just my experience, but it seems like a cracked or bad head gasket can run normally.

TOMAS7

PaulW, there's a constant drip, constant. Everywhere I park the territory is marked. I check coolant level and it uses about half an inch of coolant (reservoir half an inch) in about 3 to 4 days. Temp is fine, engine is strong, no mixture of oil in coolant or of coolant in oil.
The issue is that the drip seem to be coming from the rear, driver's side corner of the motor.
I don't see any coolant hoses near there.

boonies

I had a coolant loss problem and needed a head gasket.

Had a block check performed, showed HC in the coolant, but the car NEVER overheated. Finally started running rough in the AM. It turned out the gasket was leaking into one cyl. causing the rough running.

I ended up replacing both head gaskets and having the heads surfaced (one was warped). Did the oil cooler fix at the same time.

Your situation sounds different, but it is probably a good idea to have the cooling system tested for HC (hydro-carbons). It is a pretty simple test and should not cost much.

Best of luck!

TOMAS7

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