Heat Exchanger Leak? Need some help

[Mike92GT]

I'm more of a pushrod guy, but I'm helping a buddy with his car. He has a '04 GT that he put a built 32V motor into. It also has an Eaton set-up off an 03-04 Cobra. Lately he's been smelling coolant, but can't seem to find a leak. Today I was looking at it and noticed that there was no water in the heat exchanger tank. After filling it, we fired it up, and after about a minute it started running rough and blowing white smoke out of the tailpipes. I'm guessing that the heat exchanger is leaking coolant into the lower manifold? Has this ever happened to anyone? I think we're gonna pull the blower off tonight and see how it looks.

 

[Mod Man]

I havent heard of that happening yet. But it is possibly. If it is give me a shout tomorrow at the shop. I might have a 1 or 2 laying around that i can get rid of cheap...Hope that it isn't that though.

 

[Mike92GT]

Well I got the intake / blower off. I don't see any obvious signs of leaks from the heat exchanger itself. There are two metal tubes with O-rings on each end that connect the heat exc. to the water neck, and they run through the lower intake. It appears that it was the o-rings that were leaking. We're gonna replace them and see what happens. Thanks

 

[Gearbanger 101]

If it's not the O-rings, have you guys ever considered a bad head gasket? What's the oil look like? Have you done a compression test? Any bubbles in the radiator?

 

[Mike92GT]

I'm pretty sure it has to do with the heat exchanger. It didn't start running bad and blowing smoke until I filled up the empty heat enchanger tank, which is seperate from the engine coolant. The oil looks good. I'm hoping to have it fixed by tomorrow, I'll keep you posted.

 

[Mike97gt]

mike sounds like the heat exchanger to me. like mod man said i have yet to see one go. but your tell tail sign is the fact that it did not blow white smoke untill you filled the heat exchanger tank.

 

[Mike92GT]

Just a quick update. We got everything back together and got it running. No more leaks and everything seems to be running good now. It turned out to just be the O-rings that connect the heat exchanger to the water neck. When removing the old ones they broke because they were so brittle...

 

[03SteedaGT]

Yup the o-rings on the Z tubes need to be replaced anytime you pull them out. cheap insurance. glad you got it fixed