anti freeze on top of cylinder heads

[eventoday]

ok i may be overreacting but not sure and am real scared.

i have a 97 obw 180000 miles. i just had my heads redone thanks to a bad idler pulley. i put new headgaskets on. car has been running great for 6000 miles. today i noticed some of anti-freeze on top of the cylinder head on the passenger side.( same side upper radioator hose goes to) can anti freeze come out of your heads or are the heads full of oil. i haven't had any overheating symptoms and don't see any antifreeze in the oil. i pray i don't have a headgasket problem and am hoping maybe the anti freeze is coming from the hose somehow. cant tell where it is coming from. somebody help me get some piece of mind

 

distraught

[idosubaru]

look for the source. if it's coming from the top, that's usually a coolant hose issue. it's easy to nick a hose have a loose clamp or a tight clamp cutting into a hose and any of these will seap into the top of the head.

 

there is also the possibility that the intake manifold gasket has coolant passages in it where it bolts to the heads. this gasket can leak as well.

 

there are a number of options, you'll need to find the source to narrow it down.

 

try cleaning the area (use Greased Lightening - purple bottle) and see where the coolant starts coming from if there's too much to tell.

 

for now - don't let the coolant level get low or you will overheat and risk head gasket issues.

[eventoday]

ok thats kinda of good to hear. i am a back yard mechanic at best and i did pull the intake manifold and engine. i was wondering if there were passages in the intake manifold that coolant went through. i did notice a little antifreez coming out of the radiator hose when i put everything back together but thought i had taken car of it.

 

one more thing can antifreeze come out of the top of a headgasket?

 

thanks

[idosubaru]

one more thing can antifreeze come out of the top of a headgasket?

yes. there are coolant passages at the top of the head and you just did some major work so who knows. off the top of my head, i doubt it though.

 

i wouldn't assume head gasket this early unless you see it coming out. check the hose. sometimes it's best to just pull the thing since it's so simple but so important. a tiny crack under the clamp can be hard to spot.

[JPX]

Check the cross pipe (one end is where that top radiator hose goes) - there are o-rings on each end that could leak. It connects to the top of the head.

 

 

There is a multitude of smaller coolant hoses running through the throttle body . Plenty of places to leak if you were yanking on anything there.

[Gnuman]

Check the cross pipe (one end is where that top radiator hose goes) - there are o-rings on each end that could leak. It connects to the top of the head.

OK, you beat me to that one, but it attaches to the block, not the heads. On the passenger side of the engine, you have the radiator intake (from the engine to the radiator) at the end of the cross pipe. You also have the O-rings on the pipe itself, and the coolant temp sensor and a hose that goes to the throttle body. All of these are likely places to loose coolant from, if they are not clamped correctly, or the rubber bits are damaged/old.

 

Did you replace the headgaskets when you had the engine out? If so, did you follow the torque procedure correctly?

if so, then the headgaskets are an unlikely suspect.