Engine coolant disapearing

[RedneckRambo]

ive noticed that ive been using quite a bit of radiator coolant lately. i can fill the radiator up and a week later it needs more. i havent noticed any on the ground like its leaking from the radiator. anyone got any ideas of what i should check?

 

[jhclance]

possibly a cracked head or head gasket

 

[dillon1340]

lol. welcome to my world. i had a bad head gasket and intake i replaced it a year ago and last weekend the intake gasket went bad again. check the oil and/or pull the passenger valve cover gasket. if it looks like peanut butter then you have water in the oil.

 

[92exp4x4]

I had a freeze plug go bad on the back side of the passenger side head. It can leak out slow enough to not leave a puddle. I added coolant about every week and a half until it blew completely one day. These are not fun to get to. You are better off removing the head from the motor. I just pulled the whole engine so i could fix some oil leaks.

 

[RedneckRambo]

im gonna try some stop leak for right now and see if i can get by with it until college next fall. i plan on pulling the engine and doing a complete overhaul when i go to college.

 

[RedneckRambo]

lol. welcome to my world. i had a bad head gasket and intake i replaced it a year ago and last weekend the intake gasket went bad again. check the oil and/or pull the passenger valve cover gasket. if it looks like peanut butter then you have water in the oil.

i checked the oil yesterday and it didnt look like milk as my dad put it so i dont think theres any in the oil

 

[geoph1986]

Your best bet is to pressure test the system, and look for coolant coming out. Any radiator/repair shop should do this for free. Stop leak is an extremely bad product. It doesn't just plug the leak, it also plugs other parts of the cooling system (just like blood clots a cut). I realize that you plan to pull the motor and rebuild, but I would really reconsider using stop leak.

 

[nitro71]

I'd look at the front of the water pump. Should be a weep hole there that bleeds antifreeze when the pump goes bad. Might be what's happening.

 

[dillon1340]

Your best bet is to pressure test the system, and look for coolant coming out. Any radiator/repair shop should do this for free. Stop leak is an extremely bad product. It doesn't just plug the leak, it also plugs other parts of the cooling system (just like blood clots a cut). I realize that you plan to pull the motor and rebuild, but I would really reconsider using stop leak.

if it's a really slow leak you wont find it, especially if it is internal. i had a bad intake gasket and i have a pressure tester at home but it was leaking down so slowly i could not see the gauge moving.

agreed on the stop leak. it is a band aid fix.

are you getting steam out the tailpipe?

 

[92exp4x4]

I love stop leak. Your are right that it can plug up stuff, but those things needed replaced anyway if it plugged them. Barsleak is the only thing holding my old Bronco's cooling sytem together right now. Its merely a stopgap until I get the chance to restore it (its getting a powerstroke!!), but its been holding now for 3 years and 1 coolant change. I have had no problems with cooling capacity or the heater core. I have used it in many vehicles including forklifts with no problems. Try it out if you think it will fix your problem until you can really fix it correctly later.

 

[arco777]

BARS stop leak worked well on mine, when I got it the leak was so bad it was jetting steam against the firewall. 20 minutes with a bottle of BARS and the problem went away. I replaced the heads with aftermarket ones less than 20 miles later though. I would only recommend stop-leak if you can't afford heads.

The stock heads on the 4.0 develop hairline cracks very commonly. I would go so far as to say by now every single first gen Explorer ever made has had the stock heads crack. Aftermarket units are the solution, i.e. new ones from NAPA will be aftermarket. Remanufactured heads are the same old material and will likely crack again soon.

You can sometimes tell a bad crack/leak by putting your palm under the exhaust for about a minute. Vary the throttle for good measure. If your palm gets wet, you probably have a cracked head or two. Condensation in the exhaust will cause this too but unless you just started it up on a dewy morning it's more likely the moisture was once coolant.

 

[RedneckRambo]

if it's a really slow leak you wont find it, especially if it is internal. i had a bad intake gasket and i have a pressure tester at home but it was leaking down so slowly i could not see the gauge moving.

agreed on the stop leak. it is a band aid fix.

are you getting steam out the tailpipe?

nope no steam out the exhaust

 

[geoph1986]

I worked in a rad shop for a few years, and have seen first hand the damage stop leak products can do. It's one of those things...pay now or pay later. Just my $0.02.

 

[dillon1340]

BARS stop leak worked well on mine, when I got it the leak was so bad it was jetting steam against the firewall. 20 minutes with a bottle of BARS and the problem went away. I replaced the heads with aftermarket ones less than 20 miles later though. I would only recommend stop-leak if you can't afford heads.

The stock heads on the 4.0 develop hairline cracks very commonly. I would go so far as to say by now every single first gen Explorer ever made has had the stock heads crack. Aftermarket units are the solution, i.e. new ones from NAPA will be aftermarket. Remanufactured heads are the same old material and will likely crack again soon.

You can sometimes tell a bad crack/leak by putting your palm under the exhaust for about a minute. Vary the throttle for good measure. If your palm gets wet, you probably have a cracked head or two. Condensation in the exhaust will cause this too but unless you just started it up on a dewy morning it's more likely the moisture was once coolant.

sorry to jack a thread, i'm rebuilding an engine for my 91 and was just going to use dye penetrant to make sure the heads werent cracked before i reassembled everything. are you saying that's a bad idea?

 

[geoph1986]

If your doing a rebuild, you should at least have you heads checked by a machine shop for warping and/or cracking. If it were me, I'd just buy aftermarket heads. You've already invested a lot into your engine and it would be a shame to reassemble it only to have to rip it apart again.

 

[RedneckRambo]

If your doing a rebuild, you should at least have you heads checked by a machine shop for warping and/or cracking. If it were me, I'd just buy aftermarket heads. You've already invested a lot into your engine and it would be a shame to reassemble it only to have to rip it apart again.

ill be rebuilding mine at college as part of the class. im going into the auto-tech stuff

 

[Jack Flash]

another part that can be losing water is the heater core. when it leaks, it drains out through the a/c condensation drain, disguising itself. if your a/c works and you have had water coming out of the drain, you'll hardly notice that it's not plain water.

,
,

J...check it all before spending bucks.

 

[RedneckRambo]

after running stop leak through it ive noticed that the level hasnt dropped so hopefully it worked for the time being

 

[ahodges]

If you're going to do a complete rebuild then that should work for now.. I have a 96 and had the heads milled and gaskets replaced at 74k. They blew again at 91k! That time it drained to coolant system in just 8 miles. So instead of dealing with the chance of it happening again i bought a rebuilt 4.0 long block. So far no problems with the heads at least at 115,000.

Best of luck I hope it makes until you have the time to do the re-build.

 

[RedneckRambo]

If you're going to do a complete rebuild then that should work for now.. I have a 96 and had the heads milled and gaskets replaced at 74k. They blew again at 91k! That time it drained to coolant system in just 8 miles. So instead of dealing with the chance of it happening again i bought a rebuilt 4.0 long block. So far no problems with the heads at least at 115,000.

Best of luck I hope it makes until you have the time to do the re-build.

still no more problems with the coolant disapearing