Engine Going Through Coolant Like Crazy, But No Leaks?

[james Foos]

Howdy, new to the forums! So I got a new fox at the end of last summer. 92 hatch lx, auto with the 5.0 HO and I'm in love (big difference between this and my last car, an old 76 maverick with a sketchy 250 i6). Not much done to it, CAI, shorty's with an h pipe and hooker mufflers, electric fan, a bigger alternator, and welded in subframe connectors. (as far as I know...). It's a pretty good running car and seems well taken car of, however, it burns through oil and coolant like crazy. I can see where the oil is leaking on the ground so that's a leak, but there's no coolant leaking at all. I know in the summer when we'd cruise and I'd get on the gas my friend behind said he'd see white is smoke coming out the exhaust. Also, the cover over the auto tranny shifter isn't tight, and sometimes I'll have white smoke coming up from there into the cab as well, any ideas what it could be? I've seen people mention pcv issues, could that be it and could you some some light on that topic for me? , Any help is appreciated!

 

[Micheal Nadeau]

Loss of coolant that can not be seen on the ground, usually means its the heater core (wet floorboard on the passenger side or steam marks on the windshield when the car is shut off) or your sucking coolant through the motor. Head gasket / intake gasket

 

[Shakerhood]

I would think you have a bad head gasket or a bad heater core.

 

[james Foos]

Haha well we replaced the heater core a few weeks after we got it and that is working fine so I guess headgasket or intake. Where should I start with that exactly?? Any other signs that would determine which of those it is?

 

[MFE92]

Does the coolant overflow bottle bubble with the car at operating temp? Does the coolant in the bottle smell like exhaust?

 

[james Foos]

Well I haven't noticed it smelling any different,it's usually it's empty because it's emptying it out that quick. I can say it seems to stay fuller a lot longer if I've been driving it calmly, but if I'm driving it the fun way up

 

[A5literMan]

Head/intake gasket,cracked head/block are my guesses.

 

[SMOKUN]

Go buy a chemical test kit at auto parts store. It will smell the exhaust gas in coolant if it is ther. It will turn color. If ur intake gaskets leaking in u better take care of it or u will have bent valves. Pressure test cooling system

 

[srtthis]

if you got a leakdown tester push 100lbs of air in the motor cold and looks for pressure in the coolant system. when we start loosing a head gasket we can do it that way

 

[mikestang63]

All good advice. Here is what to do

Go to Advanced, O'Reily, Autozone and rent a coolant pressure tester and coolant exhaust gas tester. Both are free with a deposit. You will have to buy the blue liquid for the exhaust gas tester.

You can test your radiator cap an coolant system for leaks. Easy to do- use the adapter for the cap and see if it holds 16lbs. If not , the cap is bad. Then put the tester on the radiator opening- again pump to 16lbs which is the same pressure as the cap- looks for leaks- leave it on and see if the pressure drops over 15-20 minutes. Leaks could be from many places- hoses, overlow, water pump,radiator, heads, block, thermostat. If it does- you have a leak internal or external. If you don't see coolant on leaking then either it is an intake or head gasket or cracked block or heads. Is the car running normal otherwise?

Next- to test the coolant system for exhaust gas- that means the head gasket is bad and exhaust is seeping past it into the coolant system and likewise coolant is burning off into the exhaust. Notice white smoke at startup or while driving? Water dripping out the tailpipes? Spark plugs washed white? Does the car temp run high or has it overheated? Bubbles in the overflow or radiator when the car is idling? All signs of a bad head gasket.

Anyway- to use the tester. With the engine off, remove the radiator cap. Remove some coolant so there is a small gap of air between the top of the radiator and the opening. This is so the tester will pull coolant gas not coolant. Start it up to operating temperature with the thermostat open. The radiator cap should be off. The coolant should NOT puke out of the radiator unless the head gasket is really bad. The tester will fit into the radiator opening. Put the blue dye into the top part of the tester and squeeze the bulb to create a suction. It will draw coolant gasses from the radiator. PRAY to the car god that the dye does NOT turn green, If it does, you have exhaust gas in your coolant system= a bad head gasket.

 

[james Foos]

After reading all these I'm leaning towards the head gasket. It does smoke white out the exhaust, but only when I'm in higher rpms, (above 3500ish). The car runs absolutely great, just runs through the coolant like crazy. The car does runs hot, but obviously that's because the coolant level is low, we when I top it off with coolant the temp runs just fine. The thermo jumps around a little spontaneously sometimes, could that possibly mean anything? Thank you for everyone's help BTW, I really appreciate it. Really hoping it nothing as serous as a cracked block though. How likely is that? Considering how fairly stock it is. It doesn't seem like it's been run very hard at all, but you never know

 

[2000xp8]

I'd stop running the engine, if the coolant is going through the engine and mixing with the oil you'll destroy the rings and the bearings (if you haven't already) and there is no easy fix for that.

A block crack is unlikely, when it happens to one of these 302's it's usually catastrophic and the car won't run. With that said, ruining the bearings is as bad as a block crack.

 

[james Foos]

Huh, would I be able to see the coolant in the oil on the dipstick? Cause I definitely don't have that issue

 

[A5literMan]

Does the oil on the stick have any white/milky look to it?

 

[james Foos]

Not enough to tell on the stick, however, I changed the oil today and it was very dark(im sure its been a while) and had a very small milky look to it, but nowhere near white. it was a super dark grey/black still. It had been sitting outside in the cold for several hours beforehand, if that could mean anything towards the milkyness

 

[james Foos]

could it at all be due to pcv issues? Im not super familiar with the pcv system, but have heard that could have something to do with it if it's old or clogged up?

 

[mikestang63]

I recommend you go back and read my post again.

 

[james Foos]

i was planning on going to autozone after school tomorrow and getting those. Im a little confused as to how the gas tester will would, but im sure Ill figure it out. Thank you!

 

[7991LXnSHO]

Before you spend a lot of money, the white smoke from by the shifter sends up a big flag! You really need to do the pressure test, AND get the coolant dye that shows up with a black light. You could have a heater hose to heater core leak that runs down the fire wall and onto the exhaust while the car is hot. That leak will not show up on the floor, is hard to see, but will light up like a Christmas tree with dye.

If it is coming out the tailpipe, you might have a bad convertor/H pipe or some other exhaust leak. CO poisoning is worse than coolant in the oil. And it sounds like it is not going that way by not having milkshake like oil. It could still be a head gasket leaking only into a combustion chamber, so look at the plugs. But my other ideas are a lot easier to fix!

 

[jka]

Have you checked the freeze plugs ?...they may be causing the coolant loss.