Car's been using alot of water. (long)

[ill advised]

cliffnotes: Car's using alot of water and pining at low rpm's. No leaks have been found and car still has good power overall.


So what might I be dealing with here? It seems as though I'm adding water once a month (or more). I havn't noticed any leaks but it has to be going somewhere. Also, it looks as though I'm not getting much use out of my resevoir. I can't remember which brand I used, but I still have orangish coolant in my resevoir that I put in a long time ago. I checked my oil as recently as last month and saw no signs of antifreeze or water. Last oil change was a couple months ago and it looked fine (aside from being "dirty") then too. The car is still running strong and only runs warmer when I get low on water. Otherwise it maintains good temperature (well below dead center on the factory guage), heater's working fine as well.

One other thing. Lately when driving at slow speeds my car will ping unless I go down a gear. This was never an issue up until a few months ago. However, the car doesn't detonate at all in any other situation. Even when I'm going all out.

This is a high mileage, daily driver/racer with just under 300k on the odometer. The engine was overhauled (rings, bearings,etc) when the heads and cam went in but I've gone some 130k since then. Again, the car stronger now than it's ever been but I'm worried that it's going to die on me soon. Not quite ready (financially) to be buying a new block right now unless I find a lower-mileage donor 5.0 motor.

 

[5spd85GT]

I may be jumping to this conclusion because I am currently dealing with the problem, but it may be the heater core. I had a mysterious loss of fluid for years (uh, yeah I did look for it, but never could locate any leaks, so I just filled it back up two times a month). So, the classic sign would be moisture in your passenger floorboard, but mine has only had a few small drops detectable inside the car. Last Friday I pulled into my driveway, and the anti-freeze was pouring out of the A/C condensation pee-hole right onto the exhaust (ooh, big steamy Hollywood type scene with the steam coming out from under the back of the hood and rolling out the hood scoops...which lent a nice touch I must say). Anyway, I had had the anti-freeze smell in the car for awhile, and the inevitable filming of the inside of my windows. All that to say: check the heater core.

 

[ill advised]

Thanks, I checked/felt the heatercore for moisture a few weeks ago and didn't notice anything. I had the heatercore replaced in the summer of 2002. It was done at a local garage near my house (didn't want to tackle it myself) so I'm not 100% sure about the quality of the heatercore. I'll give it a closer look today.

 

[PRO50SC]

If you don't have any coolant visible outside the engine , there's only one other place for it to go. Out the tail pipe. Are you seeing any white smoke out the exhaust. It would be most likely to happen when the engine is cold. You may have a bad head gasket or cracked head. You can have this checked at your local shop. I have a chemical that picks up hydrocarbons in your anti freeze. Call around and see if anyone local has this capability to perform this test for you. It's pretty simple and shouldn't be to expensive. Our shop charges 1/2 hour labor. They will probobly want to pressure test the system as well.

 

[Maryland Stang]

Also check the small coolant line that goes from the EGR down to the back of the engine. It is difficult to see a leak there but it can leak.

 

[ECU5.0]

i was having the same problem with my car....and my heater core was busted...but it never leaked inside the car. i thought it was an intake gasket leak and that my car was burning it. but before i changed that i decided to bypass the heater core and i havent lost coolant since. i recently changed my heater core by myself. not too hard of a job, just a pain remembering where all the bolts and screws go.

 

[ill advised]

If you don't have any coolant visible outside the engine , there's only one other place for it to go. Out the tail pipe. Are you seeing any white smoke out the exhaust. It would be most likely to happen when the engine is cold. You may have a bad head gasket or cracked head. You can have this checked at your local shop. I have a chemical that picks up hydrocarbons in your anti freeze. Call around and see if anyone local has this capability to perform this test for you. It's pretty simple and shouldn't be to expensive. Our shop charges 1/2 hour labor. They will probobly want to pressure test the system as well.

This defiantely sounds like a possibility but I need to know if our idea of "smoke" are the same. In the morning on cold start up there's a very noticeble (but not thick) mist that quickly fades and doesn't linger like smoke. I blew a head gasket last summer and had to have the heads resurfaced. I pretty much scratched the headgasket off the list of suspects when my oil turned up clean. Thanks, guess I'll have to take it in and keep my fingers crossed.

 

[ill advised]

^^^

 

[1BAD89GT]

^^^

Pull your Valve cover and see if theres any white milky oil in the tops of them,sounds like you may have a very small leak at the head gasket,small enough it doesnt really effect performance and it just steams the water away and it never makes it to oil pan.Also you can buy stuff to pour into your radiator from your auto parts store,its like a purple dye and when exhaust gasses hit it,it turns yellow.