Loosing coolant/steam from exhaust

cardudeusa · Jan 9, 2011

My wifes 2000 GT recently had a radiator fail and the car over heated. That was about 2 months ago. The coolant light just came on today and I have been noticing some steam from the exhaust. Sometimes it will produce the steam other times no steam at all. Also I recently changed the oil and there was no coolant in it. My question is, does this sound like a head gasket or maybe a cracked intake? I'm hoping its the intake since its a lot easier to replace! Thanks for any help.

nyuk98gt · Jan 10, 2011

cardudeusa:

If the exhaust gas is white in color and smells sweet then coolant is getting burned in the engine. If you notice the exhaust more in the cold weather then it is just condensation (lucky for you). You can do a compression check on the engine and you can check the oil for cream-colored foam/scum (coolant mixed with oil). If you rev the engine in the driveway, you might see bubbles coming out of the expansion tank.

My money is on the intake failing after getting a little overly warm. Do you smell coolant just after the car is parked (after driving around for a while)? Is there any staining in the valley under the intake? Take a good look at the thermostat area for a very fine line (i.e.--hair-wide) of coolant around the thermostat. That is a common area for the leak to start to show up.

cardudeusa · Jan 10, 2011

I'll check into that tomorrow I'm praying its just the intake!

trombonedemon · Jan 12, 2011

nyuk98gt said:
cardudeusa:

If the exhaust gas is white in color and smells sweet then coolant is getting burned in the engine. If you notice the exhaust more in the cold weather then it is just condensation (lucky for you). You can do a compression check on the engine and you can check the oil for cream-colored foam/scum (coolant mixed with oil). If you rev the engine in the driveway, you might see bubbles coming out of the expansion tank.

My money is on the intake failing after getting a little overly warm. Do you smell coolant just after the car is parked (after driving around for a while)? Is there any staining in the valley under the intake? Take a good look at the thermostat area for a very fine line (i.e.--hair-wide) of coolant around the thermostat. That is a common area for the leak to start to show up.

Some things that could cause the coolant/degas bottle light to come on would
1. improper water to coolant mixture.
2. pockets of air trapped in the actual coolant system.

O.p. get yourself a black light pen, and at night start your car in a dark area and start looking for bright green areas.
From cleaning my cooling system, sometimes very tedious to get all of the air pockets out, sometimes causeing the water pump to squeal.
The water in those 50/50 mixtures do evaporate, so replace w/ water.
The head gaskest in the mod engine are stout, if you did not over heat the engine to the point it stopped, chances are its not the head gasket.
My '95 honda civic blew a head gasket, there were no warning signs, just saw a ton of white steam out of the back of the car and it would not start again until the head and thermastat was replaced.

cardudeusa · Jan 12, 2011

Checking over the car the bottle wasn't empty but almost. I filled it up and am going to keep an eye on it and see if it drops again. As far as the intake it has a metal cross over in the front, is that the upgraded one? I smelled the exhaust and it burned my nose lol but didn't smell like coolant to me.

CobraRed_96_GT · Jan 12, 2011

Sounds like a heater core gone bad. Look at the passenger side exhaust manifold when its hot, should be some coolant leaking onto it.

2000GTconvert · Jan 14, 2011

Trying not to thread cap, but I am running into the same situation myself. Funny how that all works out. Report back to see what you find. Maybe our issues could be the same.

2000GTconvert · Jan 14, 2011

CobraRed_96_GT said:
Sounds like a heater core gone bad. Look at the passenger side exhaust manifold when its hot, should be some coolant leaking onto it.

Are you saying coolant should be leaking on the manifold, or should be leaking on it if the heater core is bad?

cardudeusa · Jan 14, 2011

2000GTconvert said:
Trying not to thread cap, but I am running into the same situation myself. Funny how that all works out. Report back to see what you find. Maybe our issues could be the same.

Did your car ever overheat?

Loosing coolant/steam from exhaust

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