Loosing Water And Dont Know What To Do

[jdclemons]

Hi, I am loosing water from my radiator. I can fill it up about 50/50 antifreeze and water drive it down the road a couple of miles today and a couple of miles tomorrow then it low on water. I have change the thermostat which was no change. I have true dual exhaust and there is no steam coming out either tail pipe. I dont see any physical water hitting the ground so im puzzled. It is not mixing in the oil either. No water is in the passenger floor board. Does anyone know where it could be going.

[ont_guy_38]

Take the plugs out and see if there is any water in them , tap them in the palm of your hand and if there is water it will come out

[PRattenbury]

Find one of those tools that screws on the radiator cap opening that you pump up to put pressure on the cooling system. Then look around to find the leak.It's gotta be going somewhere. Especially if you put pressure on it and it won't hold. You may want to replace your cap first and run it a couple days to make sure it isn't the culprit first...

[jdclemons]

Which plugs are you talking about.

[motornut]

check the top of the intake might just evaporate
heater core
check the cross over wipe it for green

[jdclemons]

Will do thanks for some advice.

[motornut]

couldn't tell where till i was the block
was prob flyin out back while drivin

[tucsonjwt]

A couple of thoughts.
Radiator coolant overflow reservoir - can have small crack on bottom which is not visible - have you filled the reservoir to the full/cold mark and checked it later to see if it is still at that level?
Intake manifold gasket. Mine leaked in front near the water outlet/crossover hose just a small amount - very difficult to notice because it boils off the hot engine block. I used some stop leak tablets in the radiator which eventually stopped the leak, but it does turn the coolant in the reservoir brown.
Any hoses which leak at the engine attachment end can have a small leak which can also boil off the coolant before it becomes visible.
Bottom line - it is either leaking outside the engine (as suggested above) or inside the engine (like head gasket). Even though you don't see white smoke out the tailpipe it could still be leaking a small amount and burning off over a period of time.
If your radiator is leaking you should be able to see evidence of leaking somewhere on the radiator - check the fittings which connect to the radiator or where the top tank connects to the rest of the radiator or the petcock on the bottom if you have one. Leaking coolant should leave a trail of discolored paint after a period of time.

[78 Chevyrado]

Does it ever get lower than about one inch below the filler neck? If it does not, probably the coolant resivoir is leaking.

[Panelman55]

Might check the freeze plugs. I've had to replace them before. Pressure testing is the best route to solving this type issue.




Panelman55

[jdclemons]

Still having problem. I did a pressure check on my engine and all cylinders came up between 165-175 psi. I can't find any evidence of fluid so that leaves me to think that it is steam off from somewhere. I'm at the point to taking it out and put another in.

[Keith Seymore]

I think Panelman is suggesting a cooling system pressure test (not an engine compression test).

Did you answer the surge tank question? If the bottle is cracked it will leak out there but maintain the volume in the radiator once it levels out (after a few hot/cold cycles).

K

[74 stepside]

My 99 silverado did the same thing. Ended up being a bad heater hose. If your freeze plugs are leaking its easy to tell. They will have wetness to them and or water/coolant stains.

[355bullet]

Check the transmission. I had water leaking into my transmission lines from the radiator tank. Only the weirdest **** happens to me. Had to rebuild the transmission and now run an external tranny cooler

[piecesparts]

If you might have a head gasket leaking gases into the cooling system, that will push the water into the colleciton bottle and out onto the ground while driving. You can verify this by going to a radiator shop and have them do a gas test at the radiator cap, while the truck is running, to see if they get carbon monoxide gases out of it. I had this issue on my 84 and it turned out that I had bad head gaskets. That iw when I retired the 305 and put in a 350 to upgrade.