[35thredproject]

Need opinions on my current situation.. My car is either gulping coolant or unnoticeably leaking it..been checking for leaks and nothing. Topped it off Sunday night and cruised at 60mph to salina(80 miles), it's definitely low again already. I don't know how it would have used that already..? Got 700 miles left before my next oil change and it is still mostly caramel colored. Running castrol gtx high mileage, my car has 151,980k miles currently. So, some sort of leak or in need of a new head gasket? Thanks guys

[bulloch27]

That's a shit ton of miles!!!! The most likely culprits are a cracked coolant crossover (at the front of the intake), a leaking intake gasket (leaking under the coolant crossover), a leak at the coolant tube under the intake or a ruptured heater core. Remove the alternator, it only requires two bolts be removed and two be loosened as well as removal of the belt. Look under the intake and you will see a small metal tube that travels the distance of the block towards the water pump.... it seals with two O rings only, if it's leaking the intake needs to be pulled to replace the two small O rings. Also while the alty is removed look at the coolant crossover (where the intake meets the heads at the front) front left to right.... any signs of dried coolant? Any signs of dried coolant leaking between the heads and intake at the front. The intake gaskets fail very often at the coolant crossover and it's usually the first place I check. No boost, no nitrous.... 99.9999% chance of no blown head gasket. These motors are pretty solid, they have their weak points but there pretty damned reliable.

[35thredproject]

Figured as much. Thanks alot bulloch! I can't work on it till this weekend but I'll have plenty of time and tools then (I'm at college) and yea my mods are listed in my sig, NA. She still seems to run great, just my coolant is going somewhere. My water temp was just behind the midway mark so nothing there, got 26mpg coming here, burnt only slightly over 3 gallons. Hoping it's a leak.. Opinions are still welcome, the fix will happen this weekend. Btw I don't run it hard, maybe 5500rpms once a week at most..

[86er]

bulloch has it pretty much covered, the bypass under the intake, the intake cross over or an intake gasket. If it was a head gasket your exhaust would let you know, or you could take the cap off the expansion tank while running and see if its bubbling or not

[35thredproject]

....So i feel dumb, looked at all my lines and checked it overnight and no leaks. It seems as though i had a REALLY off mixture and was running close to 70 or 80% water and 30-20% coolant. Corrected the mixtures and boiled off the rest of the water, it's holding coolant now. Ha i shouldn't have underestimated the ability of these motors. THanks guys!