Quote:
Originally Posted by H. L. Chauvin
Hi Bill,
With us being miles away, many aforementioned suggestions are very thoughtful assumptions without "seeing" exactly what you have; so small added details like in your reply # 10 are important.
In your mentioning, "* The cooling system is down a qt." ......... it would be helpful if we knew since "when".
Also, it would be helpful to report:
A. Overall coolant level and coolant losses after a few days of observing coolant level.
B. ( If coolant were leaking on the floor, appears you would have already checked and reported this.)
C. Is it possible you are having no coolant leaks and not losing coolant when car is parked and not running; however, have noticeable coolant leaks only when car is first
started; and/or have coolant leaks while engine is running.
D. Could be coolant entering a tiny crevice only because of combustion chamber suction when engine is started cold ..... then when exhaust manifold and muffler gets hot ..... coolant makes steam ..... then with additional heat, when engine metal expands with more heat, the leak stops.
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HL -
I neglected to mention that my coolant system is essentially "closed". That is, the overflow pipe is connected to a hose that leads to an overflow reservoir so I believe what the radiator spits our is captured. I suspect that I'm losing coolant through another path, and it's emitted thru the tailpipe as steam, as several of you have suggested. I've driven the car 3x this year for a total of about 50 miles.
As previously mentioned, I believe I'm seeing more exhaust (steam?) for longer periods at startup than previously. That is, it's getting worse.
I probably won't get to the compression test until this weekend.
Thanks for all advice - Bill