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water loss

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blazinbg

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I have got a problem. I keep losing water in my radiator(which is new) i have checked all of the hoses and all of the common areas where water loss occurs. I am not very mechanically inclined so if you guys can try to point me in the right direction greatly appreciated.
 
I have the same issue on mine i can see no lekaes anywhere but im thinking the rad cap is not the right one and it might be letting pressure out through there just a guess..
 
I have checked the radiator cap and looks good and after driving my truck there are no visible signs of coolant around that area.
 
I dont see nothing in mine either, allthow i have an overflow can onmy rad and it got full the other day, so i had another guess maybe it losses fluid because of the hard suspension on our rigs.:crazy:
 
I was thinking in a worst case scenario. If I was loosing water inside the motor like in the heads what should I look for.
 
If I was loosing water inside the motor like in the heads what should I look for.
Click to expand...

Change the oil and see what the old stuff looks like. If it's all brown\white and sludgy you know where it's going.
 
blazinbg said:
I was thinking in a worst case scenario. If I was loosing water inside the motor like in the heads what should I look for.
Click to expand...

When i cracked my block all my coolant leaked out above the motor mounts on both sides and inbetween the heads/block(not saying you cracked your block). My guess is pop the hood, start it & let it warm up then just check everything.
 
Shut up!!!

Did not want to think of that.. if you where loosing water in the oil wouldnt you see smoke?? i have no problem in the oil i check it regularly
 
upon starting the truck in the morning it starts up normally but after driving it and it being off for a short period of time I will get lots of smoke from the exhaust but it gradually goes away is the sign of the water going where it is not supposed to.
 
or simply pull your dipstick if its milky its in your engine, if it is dont run it, fix it, it will take out the bearings in your engine if u run it with antifreeze in your oil
 
Jesus, i hate it for ya.
Man, i JUST delt with this on my "new" blazer.

I was loosing water. Water was oil free, and oil was water free.
Only one other place it can going if its not on the ground, and thats... out the exhaust!

I had minor blow head gasket (more like non-sealing) and it was slowly leakin water into the cylinder, and getting burned out the exhaust. not enough to make it smoke white. If you pull all the spark plugs, i would almost bet one will look very different from the rest.

If the water is not leakin on the ground, and the oil and water is clean then you will have 1 of 3 things. A cracked block, cracked head, of if your lucky a blown head gasket...
 
There are a few things. Radiator cap. Leaking (slowly) onto the intake at the water neck, where the hose connects to the block. All the hose connections. Overflow cracked. Overflow getting full and dumping fluid after you walk away.

I've noticed on my truck that the core support mounted factory overflow, APPEARS to lose coolant while off-road, I'm guessing it sloshes out, even though it's at the right level.
 
There's that too. :)

Remember, pressure in the cooling system (except in the block) rises after you shut the engine off. It may very well cause enough pressure to leak after you walk away. My sisters car did that, when some type of stop leak stuff plugged up the overflow, and was acting as a one way. Would only overflow once the system bled off pressure, 10 minutes or more after shut off.
 
This may help you...
Shortly After purchasing my blazer, i learned the previous owner was runnin 100% water, which is bad for aluminum parts (ie, anything aluminum that touchs water in the cooling system, intake, heads, water neck, or water pump)
They water will eat away parts when it dosnt have antifreeze.

Anywho, i bought a "flush" kit, which you hook into a heater hose and then you hook up the water hose, and with the engine running, crank up the water hose, and alllllll this nasty water is pushed out of the radiator cap (you leave it off) This puts more pressure on the cooling system than normal, which would make the leak more evident. Before i was finished with the process, i turned the truck off, and left the water hose on for a second. When i started the motor the second time, it smoked white out of the exhaust (and i could smell the water) I knew exactly what happened at that time... filled the cylinder with water.

Kind of a ****ty way, but a good way to help locate the problem..

But if i was you, i would just pull the plugs man, that will tell you alot

But, this also scares me a little. If you have a weak head gasket, this may push it past the point of being weak to blowing it out.
 
Personally id think id rather have the head gasket go in my driveway instead of out on the highway or trail. Id do as mentioned above pull the dip stick and check for a milky color or lots of bubbles. if it looks good then id start pulling plugs. (seems like a good time for some standard maitence.) aka plugs, plugs wires, dist cap n rotor. Head gaskets are pretty simple to do with basic tools. Good Luck!
 
Don't know if you mentioned it already but do you run only water or antifreaze? Water evaporates at a much lower temp than the green stuff. I have to refill mine every now and then just cuz i'm using water (keep forgetting to buy antifreeze) and i don't have a fan shroud yet so the temp gets pretty high. Since i haven't fixed the temp guage, i don't know it's too hot until it starts to boil over.:doah:
 
Potentially off topic, but antifreeze is good for it's anti-freezing characteristics, and anti-corrosion. A 15PSI radiator cap gets you 250* boiling point with straight water, the added pressure (up to 40PSI I've seen in print) of the water pump working to pressurize the block results in up to 300* boiling point of straight water.

Antifreeze companies have done a good job of hiding the fact that the "boilover protection" they cite is based on a 15PSI radiator cap. Which in most cases means what, 20-30* more to the boiling point at a 50/50 mix? That's insignificant, since your engine should not ever get to 250* in the first place, let alone anything higher.

It IS significant when you think about actual evaporation though. Coolant will not evaporate readily unless its really hot. Hot water alone will evaporate readily, perhaps before it hits the ground if the leak is very small. Hmm...now that I think about it, water in an open reservoir system like ours, would tend to evaporate off even in normal use, thus requiring refills.
 
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