Coolant Issues

NYSpeed Automotive
1

Was riding in my g/fs 96 monte carlo LS when I realized heat wasent being steady. When we got back I checked at her coolant was almost all gone. Put more in, and within 24 hours, was almost empty again. Any suggestions on what to do or price estimates on how much it would cost to fix? Maybe this will be her christmas present :slight_smile:

2

If its not dripping coolant anywhere then it

sounds like an intake manifold gasket leak.

Very common on those pos 3.xL gm motors.

Not a real fun job to do, a mechanic would assrape you on price to do it, maybe find someone local to do it, its pretty common.

3

thats definetly a djnick job

4

djnick?

5

Head gasket. Check your oil for milky white stuff. See any white smoke coming out of the tail pipe?

6

Haven’t seen any white smoke, but also haven’t been paying much attention since its her DD. Milky white stuff in the oil? Why would that be?

7

Coolant in the oil.

8

ahhh, Well I was just reading up, and it says you can’t mix dexcool with any other coolant, is that true? I cant have her driving around without any coolant in her car and if I cant put anything else in it, were SOL?

9

u havent mentioned whether or not shes dripping coolant

10

Don’t mix it with the green stuff unless you want sludge in your cooling system.

11

:word: happened in my DD about a year ago, its reallly not that hard to do though. took me and my dad about 6 hours for the first time ever doing it

12

I havent seen any leaks

13

its a 3100 btw. could also be headgasket :frowning:

14

3.1 is def prone to headgasket leaks. Had 2 engine replacements in my 97 grandprix a few years ago. Stop driving the car now, you are only making it worse at this point.

15

Headgaskets are a pain, and if its loosing a gallon or so of coolant in a 24 hour period, its really bad, no matter WHICH gasket it is.

If i had the time, we could pull the heads off and look for a clean cylinder, IE headgasket broke there.

Thats the only real way to diagnose it. oh and taking the heads off is not a quick thing. When my mechanic and i did my sisters Escort wagon it took 2 hours just to get the one head of the little 1.9 I4.

If its not leaking any, Check the oil, And stop driving it immediately. Let me call my mechanic (you know him) he likes GM. and let me see what he can do for her.

16

def. drain the oil and check for coolant in it

17

  1. If you lost almost all the coolant in 24 hours, and don’t see a puddle, it’s not leaking it. That’s a lot of coolant to just disappear. If it was leaking you’d see at least a drip somewhere, more likely a river.

  2. Pretty sure that when the intake manifold gasket goes you can see the coolant on top of the motor, in the little recesses around where the intake meets the block. If that assumption is right, and you don’t see coolant, it’s not that.

  3. The heater core can leak too, but again, if it’s a leak you’d see it.

  4. That leaves head gasket. Burning that much you should be able to see white smoke coming out of the exhaust, or coolant in the oil. Drain the oil first and see what you have. Then test the compression on each cylinder. they should all be within about 5psi of each other. I’m guessing you’ll find one or two that are considerably different than the rest, and that’s where your head gasket is blown.