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Wellll so I’ve noticed this after putting nearly 2,000 miles on my new to me ‘86 944.
I bought the car with clean oil and clean coolant, had the water pump and belts replaced as preventative and while I was in there had fresh oil and a new filter installed. I’ve noticed these leaks suddenly and have monitored them over the last few weeks. My oil is still nice and golden and clear and my coolant is perfectly healthy as well. Zero contamination and zero contamination on my oil filler cap as well, but I’m still nervous none the less. Do I need to stop driving the car? Is my HG on its way out? Or is this just small seepage from the outer jackets that’s not going to bring upon any significant harm?
I have not seen the leaks grow in size nor have I experienced any losses in my oil/ coolant levels.
thought I’d turn to the wisdom of those on the forum for some better guidance.
Jacob, there is only one place, near the back of the head, where an oil passage goes through. Coolant on the other hand is a likely candidate.
You could borrow a pressure tester from one of the autoparts store and see if your coolant system is holding pressure. It is quick and easy to use. There are also "test strips" that you can dip into the coolant that will indicate the precense of combustion products. As long as you are at it, you could do a compression check. If nothing obvious shows up, clean the engine again and re-evaluate after further driving.
Jacob, there is only one place, near the back of the head, where an oil passage goes through. Coolant on the other hand is a likely candidate.
You could borrow a pressure tester from one of the autoparts store and see if your coolant system is holding pressure. It is quick and easy to use. There are also "test strips" that you can dip into the coolant that will indicate the precense of combustion products. As long as you are at it, you could do a compression check. If nothing obvious shows up, clean the engine again and re-evaluate after further driving.
Thanks for the tips! I’ll start with checking the coolant for combustion products with those test strips and go from there.
This is right below the spark plug wire for cylinder #1 correct? When changing out the antifreeze I pack paper towels, etc around the air bleed screw to soak up antifreeze that comes out, but I'm sure many people don't. One can get a fair amount of coolant sputtering out until all the air is bled out. Is it possible that this is coolant that came out of the air bleed screw during the bleeding of air? Before panicking I would clean it up real good and see if it comes back. Good luck, let us know what the problem is when you find it.
I should update this thread since it has been awhile. I made sure to clean up the area as best as I could reach and I have continued to watch it until now. No new gunk has appeared and the engine has continued to behave and operate healthy during all this time. A few other issues arose forcing me to divert my attention elsewhere. My radiator does need to be replaced I get quite a bit of coolant dripping when I leave the car outside in cold weather. (End tanks) but it seals when everything expands. I have my eye on the CSF kit.
I have continued to check the oil and the coolant for contamination and after 2 oil changes since this post I’m happy to report that the oil looks like pure golden honey. The dip stick also only smells purely of oil, not race amounts of sweetness or fuel rich oder coming from the bottom of the pan.
My oil pressure is healthy as well.
I’ve just hit 151,000 miles so I’m sure I’m about 20 or 30k miles away from a preventative rebuild or at the very least a top end refresh. I have a few plans for the car including some electronics upgrades that should help me keep much more detailed tabs on how my engine is performing.
I think the most definitive thing for anyone to do if they fear their head gasket is failing is to both check for combustion gasses in the coolant tank as well as run a compression test on each cylinder as previously suggested. Apart from the obvious signs of white sweet smoke out of the exhaust or an engine that fails to fire completely.
I’d add renting a camera to peak into the spark plug holes and checking the condition of the cylinders to that list as well.
speaking of spark plugs I recently changed mine and all four looked clean and wore evenly. Cheers!
Are you sure its not just coolant leaking from the temp sensor (first photo)? You might want to slightly tighten the sensor or replace with a new gasket
10-07-2021, 02:50 AM
Not what I want to see…
