Help finding coolant leak?

[Lazzman]

My Explorer is using approximately a 1/2 gallon of coolant every 500 miles, no visible leaks and no puddles under the truck, all original hoses with approximately 200k mi on them.

Cannot find out which hose, component or gasket is leaking, any tips on finding the leak?

Thanks for any advice or suggestions

 

[jremington59]

How do you know it's leaking and not burning it?

 

[budwich]

put some dye in the coolant... it will leave a trace of any "outside leaks" even after the moisture has evaporated.

 

[Turdle]

put some dye in the coolant... it will leave a trace of any "outside leaks" even after the moisture has evaporated.

Yup, then run it until hot, let it set overnight and pull the spark plugs. Use the UV light to check for coolant dye in the combustion chamber, or, on the sprk plugs themselves.

Also, check the top of the passenger side upstream cat converter. A leaking heater core might just drip right there on top where it will immediately dry and not show a wet spot. Look for visible water marks along the HVAC box and firewall junction. You might need to pull the inner fender liner to see up in there real good.

 

[Knox5.0]

You can also do a pressure test on the cooling system. See if it holds pressure and check for leaks.

 

[Lazzman]

Looks like I have a lot to do.

Went over the engine bay good this evening with a flash light after a 40 mile highway drive and did not see any coolant anywhere, not on hoses or engine parts.

Why would the engine burn coolant? I checked the oil and it is clean with no traces of white sludge or anti freeze.

Methinks it might have something to do with the heater core, I shall have to have a look. No smell of anti freeze in the vehicle though.

Thanks for the support

 

[foxx]

the plastic type housing where the thermastat is can seep slowly and evaporate .

 

[Lazzman]

Thanks, I will check that out also.

Don't think I am burning the coolant, no white smoke out the tail pipe, no anti-freeze in engine oil, no oil in coolant.

The Hunt goes on....

 

[Explorer Junky]

I think you are burning it! You might have a bad head gasket. Is there a lot of water coming out of your tail pipe? Is there a white smoke? Check your plugs, they could show you something if they have a costing on them.

 

[Turdle]

You would not necessarily see it out the tailpipe, as the catalytic converters will "burn off" anything that goes thru them. I think they operate in the area of 2000 degrees, so it would take a lot of moisture to make white smoke.

Check your spark plugs, lay them out in order and let's see a picture of them please---

 

[jremington59]

If you were leaking a gallon of coolant every thousand miles you'd see some trace of it somewhere. I'm going with the head gasket going on you.

You want to keep an eye on it if it is the gasket. You don't want your cylinders full of antifreeze. A friend of mine just went through this with his Envoy. He was going through twice the coolant you were and it wasn't detectable coming out of the exhaust. Then one day it quit and the cylinders had fluid in them.

I couldn't believe what it costs nowadays to have a mechanic change it. The cheapest he found was almost a grand. So he decided to do it himself. It's been about three weeks and he says he'll finish it tommorrow, lol.

 

[Knox5.0]

I couldn't believe what it costs nowadays to have a mechanic change it. The cheapest he found was almost a grand.

Ditto. I had a BMW with a blown head gasket and i cant even begin to describe what a nightmare that was.

 

[john93rangerstx]

lower intake mainifold gasket

 

[J.J. BIGGS]

Hey man I read all the messages and WOW dont listen to anything that you have read so far I am as close to a cooling system expert as you can get with out a CERT I have had seen this problem in different makes and models. if you have no idea where the leak is doesnt mean its not there I can guarantee its not your head or gasket. If your engine isnt leaking any oil your best bet is to put baby powder all over the engineyou will see the leak then take an air hose and blow off the powder it will all come off except the for the wet Powder And There Is your leak its gone be near the end of a hose Let me know JJ BIGGS

 

[jremington59]

Hey man I read all the messages and WOW dont listen to anything that you have read so far I am as close to a cooling system expert as you can get with out a CERT I have had seen this problem in different makes and models. if you have no idea where the leak is doesnt mean its not there I can guarantee its not your head or gasket. If your engine isnt leaking any oil your best bet is to put baby powder all over the engineyou will see the leak then take an air hose and blow off the powder it will all come off except the for the wet Powder And There Is your leak its gone be near the end of a hose Let me know JJ BIGGS

It won't come off where there is oil or tranny fluid either. And there's a lot of that on most older engines.

Have you ever smelled a couple drops of coolant on a hot engine? It's pretty noticable. Guaranteeing him that it's not the headgasket based on the info given is pretty daring. That is unless you're covering the cost of a new engine for him.

 

[Explorer Junky]

I am with JRemington on that one! Just like the idiot that argues with me and my stereo guy about ground lengths for amps. Some people are self noted experts. People who don't think anyone else could ever be right are dangerous to themselves and other people. My leak was also slow and hardly noticeable under the hood. It took UV die and a pressure tester to find it!! Good luck man.

 

[G-96XLT]

If the coolant is burning you will notice a nasty smell and if you rev up to 5k standing still or driving you should see major smoke. There is no way the cat is eating all that smoke up. There could also be coolant mixed in with the oil, I don't know about the explorers but my maxima had green engine oil when I had a cracked head.

you might just have a leak in a funny place like over the wheel and you don't notice it.

 

[jremington59]

If it's just a small crack it might not be noticable at that rate. I'm not saying it's the head gasket for sure, but losing that amount and not smelling or seeing any coolant around the engine isn't a good sign for a hose leak. Antifreeze burning off the hot engine leaves an unmistakable odor. Through the cats, that amount mixed with exhaust fumes probably wouldn't be noticeable.

I hope it's not the head gasket for his sake. The only thing he can do is get the system pressure tested or wait until it gets worse. Whichever way you chose you need to keep an eye on the oil. Like I said earlier, my friend drove his for months before it got bad enough to flood the cylinders.

I wonder if any company makes anything that will temporarily seal a small head gasket leak?

 

[Knox5.0]

I hope it's not the head gasket for his sake. The only thing he can do is get the system pressure tested or wait until it gets worse. Whichever way you chose you need to keep an eye on the oil.

+1 Whenever he checks his oil he really needs to look at the bottom of his oil cap for signs of chocolate milk. When the HG on my BMW blew the oil in my oil pan was clean but the underside of my oil cap and inside my valve cover was covered in milkyness.

He can also check his spark plugs to see if any of them look cleaner than the others due to the "steam" cleaning they been getting from coolant being burned in the cylinder. I still say just do a pressure test too. That should tell him alot.

 

[97sprt4x4]

Hey man I read all the messages and WOW dont listen to anything that you have read so far I am as close to a cooling system expert as you can get with out a CERT I have had seen this problem in different makes and models. if you have no idea where the leak is doesnt mean its not there I can guarantee its not your head or gasket. If your engine isnt leaking any oil your best bet is to put baby powder all over the engineyou will see the leak then take an air hose and blow off the powder it will all come off except the for the wet Powder And There Is your leak its gone be near the end of a hose Let me know JJ BIGGS

this is an extremely bold statement for someone that just joined and have no posts. and like stated above i wouldn't make claims about being sure it's not his heads or gasket without offer to pay if its not and it then requires machining from warping out.

Your best bet is to pressure test it. I recently did this on a friends bronco and we found out that the heater core is cracked and that's where its leaking from. It would only leak noticeably when the heat was on. You should check the cap too. i don't think that could give you the losses your looking at, but it could definitely be a contributor.

Justin