Coolant Leaks Solved

[Bill90Loyale]

Mine is a 90 Loyale SPFI 2wd std tranny. 210K miles. Started to lose about a pint of coolant from the reservoir every 300 miles. As always, I assumed the worst at first. Blown head gasket? No. No bubbles in reservoir, no chocolate shake on the oil cap or in oil. Checked a lot of hoses, all the usual suspects. Took it to my mechanic to pressure test it. As soon as we had the pressure up, a steady drip came from the left side (drainplug side) of the radiator. Turned out my five year old radiator had failed in that corner. Total breakdown of the fins in about a four square inch area. Installed a new radiator, this one with "lifetime warranty." Thought I was set. Then the coolant smells started to fill the cockpit, and I was still losing coolant. Oh no - the dreaded heater core failure? Started to mentally brace myself for a complete dismantle of the dash, or one of the sawzall approaches. But wait... This weekend, my son and I took the old girl to the carwash. Long line (50 degree days in Jan. in VT will do that). While I'm waiting, I popped the hood, removed the spare, and voila:banana:

there it was. The hose clamps securing my Prestone "T Flush" had loosened with time. When the system was pressurized, they'd spray coolant down onto the hot engine, the fumes then got sucked into the fresh air intake under the windshield, and I had the best simulated heater core failure you could hope for. A happy ending. Movie rights available.

[GeneralDisorder]

It always feels good when you get that stuff solved. I recall my battle with lost coolant..... Manifold gaskets are only bought from the DEALER from now on. I've even blown the Fel-Pro's.

 

GD