GTSilver944

I rebuilt my engine 1k miles ago. It is losing slowly losing water and there are no obvious leaks or puddles. I am running just water with no coolant. There is no white smoke from the tailpipe. I did notice bubbles in the oil, but I (perhaps incorrectly) attributed this to the crank scraper scraping off aerated oil due to slightly overfilling it. The oil was just changed at 500 miles. The new oil doesn't seem to have bubbles. There is no oil in the water. The oil now seems to be at a higher level than when I filled it.

What else should I look for? Does this point to incorrectly installed oil cooler seals?

MAGK944

Probably not what you want to hear but a general rule is that if there is water in the oil you have a bad head gasket and if you have oil in the water you have a faulty oil cooler or seal. So if you have no oil in your water and the oil level is rising, chances are that you are getting water in your oil through a bad headgasket.

GTSilver944

Also, the car lost water to a certain level, then I added water - thinking that it had gone down after recently bleeding the system. The car then lost coolant to the exact same level and has just stayed there. Any idea what that's about?

The head was resurfaced and I put in a new head gasket. I did the three step torque by the book. Everything torqued evenly, but I think I accidentally skipped bolt #6 on the third stage of torque-ing. It was still at the second stage of tightness when I doubled checked everything at the end.

Headgasket leaks are supposed to give you white smoke, correct? Am I not seeing that because I am running straight water?

Also, should I order a new cam gasket, exhaust, and intake gaskets when I get the new head gasket? They are like brand f-ing new.

GTSilver944

Before I sink more time and $ into a head gasket, is there any way to test to confirm it it a hg?

Edit: I just cracked the bleeder screw with the engine warm and there was no pressure.

MAGK944

The tell-tale sign is white smoke from the tailpipe, but you are not getting any. Take the oil filler cap off and look for signs of water droplets, chances are that you have a small hg seepage from one of the water passages to one of the cylinders and that almost all of the water would evaporate during ignition.

I am just passing on my experience here, which is not that extensive. I would hate you to take the head off and find that nothing is wrong and it was something else. Get a second opinion from others here who have greater knowledge in these matters before you start ripping things apart and spending more $'s.

GTSilver944

Update: Found a leak coming out from the headgasket at the very rear as well as a small leak from a hose that needed to be tightened.

What should I do:
A. Buy a new headgasket, and intake/exhaust gaskets.
B. Just buy a new hg. No intake/exhaust gaskets.
C. Pull the head, clean, then install the old headgasket (1k miles) assuming that it was simply torqued incorrectly.

The car just had the head milled 1K miles ago and has not overheated.

V2Rocket

im in a similar situation; it has been ungodly hot the last few days and sometime in the last 3 days or so i have lost a considerable amount of coolant; it usually sits about halfway between the minimum and maximum marks but today after a drive it was barely a puddle at the bottom of the tank. there was a small puddle on the ground that was coolant but i moved it to a different parking spot and there was no spot anymore. i just put almost two small bottles of water in and its barely at the minimum. my seals are all about 3.5 years old so hopefully its just a leak somewhere rather than a HG. no white smoke, no loss of power, and oil level is fine and smells good.

i will be doing my oil cooler gasket/seals next time i go home so maybe that will fix it. there used to be a coolant leak at the gauge temp sender but i fixed that, no coolant below it anymore.

where else is a common place to leak? i cant see any leaks.

Tom R.

max,
good luck with the motor. no help here. i thought you were back here already. should i send the seat belt part or wait till you get here to give it to you. my bad. its been sitting on my desk, and ive been too wrapped up with other nonsense.

GTSilver944

I'm back. I'll come over in a couple weeks when the 944 is not broken to pick that up and check out the M3. How are you liking the yellow beast?

V2Rocket

it looks like it got so hot while driving up to riverside (about 105 temperature the whole way) that i burned off about a quart of coolant lol. filled it up to the line and its been fine since

V2Rocket

check your coolant cap. just looked at mine after repeatedly losing coolant (been adding just water the last few days) and found a small tear in the upper seal that went to the seating surface. there is no way the system could have been pressurized, meaning once my car got past operating temperature it would boil off!

Mike C.

Autozone and some other large chain parts stores rent cooling system pressure testers. This device allows you to pressurize the cooling system while the engine is cold. You can then pull the plugs and look for evidence of leakage into the cylinders and other places.

GTSilver944

I found some watery stuff on plug #2 and there must be water in the oil (it's very thin and the levels too high). New head gasket goes in on Wednesday...