Holy crap that is cool!!!

 

With the tester, will I be looking for a certain holding pressure or just to listen/look for leaks???

Any way to just hook up an air compressor to one of the coolant hoses???

 

If you pump the testrer up to 10psi, you will be able to anwer your above question without any help from us. lol It WILL leak if there is a leak. If it is tiny, it will take a minute or three. Just look under the car, then find it. The smaller the leak, the longer it will take from a pressure decrease. You'll see/feel the leak way before that. Do check the heater hose and the heater valve. They are on and near the back. Let us know what you find.
If you were closer I'd lloan you my tester.

 

Although it's possible to get an external leak, most of the "blown" HG's are internal leaks where the barrier between the bores and cooling jackets develop a leak. You don't generally smell coolant when that happens. The header side has the pipe for the heater and connecting hoses -- I bet a dime you have a small seeping leak at one of the hoses there.

 

I'll find out today for sure.

Also, wife was behind me in her carlast night at a stop light and she said she could smell coolant. but as soon I was driving it stopped.

Checked the oil cap and had the "tapioca pudding" but told that can happen on it's own sometimes but had the rad cap off and pumping the gas and noticed the water moving.

 

I had all the same symptoms before my HG went due to old age (less the tapioca/milkshake). Mine was also from a pin hole in #4....not enough for white smoke but enough that once I shut the car down coolant would dribble back into the cylinder. At startup it would burn off and smell sweet but after a couple of minutes no smell at all...car would run fine. I even passed a hot leakdown test w/ flying colors 1k before I tore the engine apart.

I have used an exhaust gas contamination test kit and it worked great on another car. Mine was more like fancy Ph paper though.

 

Todd have you considered the condensation from this cold snap? It has been the coldest of the season.

 

Yep! Same symptoms.

I was told, if I stay off the boost, I can drive it for a long time like this if need be. I would rather not, but just hard to accept it I guess

Especially since i have no idea why it happened. I have had the same chips/boost/settings etc. for 5-6 months and no issues. not sure why all of a sudden this happened.

And had a top end rebuild/new gaskets, less than 2 years ago.

 

That was my first thought since we have been so cold here in the last week or so, but would not account for the sweet smell.

Will be pulling the plugs tonight.

 

Have you pressure tested the cooling system yet? Coolant smell in the engine bay is not generally a HG symptom. It's usually a bad hose or similar leak. Condensation that burns off in the morning is also not generally a sign of a bad HG. What other syptoms do you have that have led you to this concludion?

 

Funny, i just mentioned the cold weather in your other thread...I guess us Floridians blame everything on the weather if it's under 75F HA!.

My sweet coolant smell was from the exhaust pipe, any sweet that I smelled under the hood was from the over flow. The pin hole in my case was working both ways....when running a tiny bit of combustion gases was getting into the pressurizing the coolant system and spitting some coolant out of the overflow; after I shut the car down it would leak a little back into the cylinder and burn off at start up (sweet out the tailpipe).

Personally I wouldn't run the car if you saw "tapioca" anywhere near the oil system...to much to risk there.

 

"when running a tiny bit of combustion gases was getting into the pressurizing the coolant system and spitting some coolant out of the overflow; after I shut the car down it would leak a little back into the cylinder and burn off at start up (sweet out the tailpipe). "

Bingo!!

 

Well, after 3 hours on the pressure tester pressure finally started to fall off.

Pulled the plugs and #4, of course, is the culprit. Had coolant in there.

My issue is that I have no idea HOW it happened. No changes have been done to boost levels or tuning for some time. And I hate when something of this magnitude is jsut a fluke. Will make me question everytime I ever hit the gas again...."is today the day the hg goes again?"

 

"That which does not kill our cars, makes them go faster" - Toddk911

 

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!