toddk911

Ok, posted wrong title and do not know how to edit title on the other thread.

Ok, in the last couple of days, on start up I have noticed a coolant smell and the exhaust seems to be full of moisture/noticable amount of exhaust and NO leaks!! I.e. making me think it is leaking into the motor.

A. It has been fairly cold last few days.

B. After I drive it for a bit and come back home and let idle, exhaust is fine.

C. Coolant levels seem to be steady, although, I am tracking it now. And did not see any foaming.

D. Coolant smell goes away after 1-2 mins.

Is there any other cause to these symptoms??

Cuz the first thing in my mind when I smell coolant but no visable leaks is HG.

Waterguy

Those are the exact symptoms my '89 had when the head gasket died of old age. The sweet smell of coolant in the exhaust is pretty conclusive. In my case, the gasket corroded between one of the water jacket passages and #4 cylinder. It wasn't bad enough to cause major problems (yet), but on shutdown the pressure in the cooling system forced a bit of coolant into #4. I was able to confirm this by removing the spark plugs before start-up and "dipping" the cylinders with a small wooden dowel. The dowel came out of #4 with coolant on the end of it.

Its not that big of a job to change the head gasket. All the "while you are in there" stuff started to add up in my case, though.

toddk911

Crap!!!

Well, the HG was changed with the top end rebuild about 2 years ago.

Yea, the car dirves fine as I am thinking like you said, just a small amount gets in under pressure and on start up it burns off.

toddk911

How long were you able to go before taking care of it???

Waterguy

I pulled mine off the road as soon as it got bad enough to notice. As long as the volume of coolant stays less than the combustion chamber volume (89 mL) it shouldn't do any harm. My fear was that enough coolant would leak in to hydrolock that cylinder. I am not sure that the starter motor has enough power to bend a rod but I didn't want to test it out.

Doesn't sound like yours died of old age.

Tom M'Guinn

It's not unusual for condensation to burn off while the engine warms up. It may be nothing more than that? When/where do you smell coolant? Generally, that suggests an external leak somewhere -- hose, gasket, pump, etc. Do you have any other syptoms -- milkshake in the cap, running hot, air in the cooling system? How is your car tuned?

toddk911

Well, I did not see any leaks or wetness around any pipes/hoses.

The smell is most prominent on the header side of the motor.

I do not get the sweet smell in the exhaust, but not the normal "rich" smell. And just a good bit of condensation, but that could be due to running mostly water in the coolant and not much antifreeze.

No milkshake. Temps are just fine and car runs/boosts fine.

I have Russell's 951 MAXX chips for about 4-5 months and all has been well and A/f are just fine.

toddk911

Oh,I smell it only about 1-2 min during start up/warm up and then it is gone. Which made me think like Waterguy said in that some coolant is getting into the chamber (small amounts) burns off on start up and then is gone.

toddk911

I guess the easiest confirmation is either dip something in the chamber and see if coolant or do a compression test and see if compression drops down on any cylinders???

toddk911

How do you pressure check the cooling system??? What hose/line do you tap into??

Tom M'Guinn

That's sounds like your best next move. Sears sells a pressure tester for about $60 (or you may be able to borrow one from a parts store). They attach to your reservoir (in place of the cap). Pump it up to 10 psi or so and find your leaks! I'm guessing you have one if you smell coolant in the engine bay.

toddk911

So since I smell it in the bay you don't think headgasket???

Waterguy

Just to clarify, I smelled it at the exhaust tip when the head gasket was gone. The odour coming out of the exhaust had a definite glycol smell - think cheap German wine. My coolant was 50/50 antifreeze/water. That is what I thought you were referring to.

If you are smelling it near the headers, one possible culprit is the heater hose/valve, which will leak onto the cross-over and burn off on start-up. I would second the recomendation on cooling system pressure testing.

Trucho-951

Todd, try a dye test to check for combustion gases mixing with your coolant, there are various types of dye tests, here is one example:

http://www.toolfetch.com/Brand/UView...20in%20coolant

toddk911

Ok, got it.

I noticed a lot of moisture on my hand at the tail pipe, but not really the sweet smell, BUT I thought that might be because I run a mostly water mix and not much glycol.

I know I had a leak at the hose/hard line over the header and was a quick fix and hoping this might be the same, but that time I could see the leak and now I do not.

I will get the system pressurized asap.