Hello,

Im hoping someone can assist me in finding the culprit of the following coolant leak. I hate fluid leaks and to make matters worse I constantly fail at tracking them down. I've been fighting a pesky oil leak for about 2 years now

Anyway, about a month ago I swapped my UICP and have started to notice coolant spewed all over it. I may have had this leak for a while now and never noticed it but nonetheless something isn't sealing properly.

I will let the pictures do the talking here. I do not want to start arbitrarily replacing gaskets but Im afraid that is whats it's going to come to.

Within that area there are a few coolant lines that run to the turbo. There are also the radiator feed and return lines up around there as well as the thermostat housing. I did a headgasket a few months back and replaced the gasket between the thermostat housing and the head. I don't think that is the culprit but it may not have seated properly.

Im hoping its just a pinhole leak in one of the turbo coolant lines but like I said I dont want to start replacing things without having a solid idea that its indeed that.

Nothing is jumping out at me unfortunately. I am aware of the techniques of using dye and a UV light but I havent had much success with that in the past.

Has anyone seen something like this before?

 

wrap a rag around thermostat,zip tie it and drive around for a day or two.see if it's wet.

 

The way its shooting out I'd check the fluid level top it off if need be. Warm the car up and with protection (grinding shield, gloves and long sleeve shirt ) rev the car up a little and look for where its shooting from. From that spray pattern it should be obvious maybe even without revving. Just be careful.

 

When the engine is cold, clean everything off and feel around all coolant lines in the area for any tears or missing clamps.... then let the car idle and build pressure in the system....observe for location of leak. Follow the spray patter back to its source as best you can. Rev the engine by hand if needed, be careful and wear protective clothing in case the spray is significant...don't want you to get burned!

Your radiator cap is OK? The radiator top is OK?

I had a similar leak (spray pattern slightly different) and it turned out to be the thermostat housing gasket, not the actual thermostat top but the gasket that mates to the head with 4 bolt holes (your problem does not seem to be this gasket though).

Let us know what you discover!

 

Thanks everyone for your replies. With its spray pattern I thought it would be easy to track down the source. I think I need to recruit Dexter Morgan to analyze the splatter...

Egis- Thank you. Do you mean the neck of the thermostat housing? Say it gets wet; would that entail its right at the neck? I've had thermostat issues in the past so Ive pulled that off many times. I dont even recall there being a gasket there. I think the manual may call for RTV but Im not sure.

Shawnmsr- Thank you. I keep a very close eye on my fluid levels. It really isnt loosing coolant at least enough for it to be noticeable. The pictures look pretty significant but that is after a good beating, aka recent tuning endeavor, consisting of many 3rd gear pulls. Whats interesting is that it doesnt really spray much unless Im driving the car hard. Higher RPMs would spin the wp faster and flow more fluid but it wouldnt add any additional pressure unless my cooling system is being pressurized from a failing hg for example.

SilverShadow03- Thank you. I tried cleaning it all up originally but still wasnt able to find the source of the leak. This was with it just idling though so maybe I need to carefully rev it up a little?

My radiator cap is new as of a few months ago, and its an OEM unit. I still have my stock radiator so the end tanks are plastic but it appears to be in fine shape. I havent noticed any wetness around where the ends are crimped but I will take another look.

What did your leak look like when it was the thermostat housing gasket? It could have just been leaking in a different spot. I have a new gasket sitting at home and was planning on just replacing it but figured I'd hold off first as I literally put a new one on a couple months ago. I should have installed the gasket with the head out of the car but didnt. Its was actually kinda tricky to bolt it down while keeping the gasket properly aligned so maybe I compromised the gasket and pinched it or something?

There are no missing clamps and I felt around and really didnt notice or feel any rips or tears. You'd think with a spray patterns as such it'd be obvious but once again I fail with fluid leaks...

 

I had a similar leak and it was the turbo coolant feed line.

 

^^ me too

 

I had the same exact leak but never could source where it was coming from.

 

Thanks guys, this is promising. I was hoping its something stupid and simple like that. Was it on the hard line portion or on the rubber line? I've got my stock turbo and associated lines sitting on my work bench so I can try swapping lines from that.

 

Mine broke apart at the soft line leading to the coolant bypass

 

Yeah. The rubber line.

 

Soft line wahoo, haha!! I hope its that

Powerdriver- please excuse my ignorance but where is the coolant bypass? Do any of my pictures show it? Thanks!

 

I'm 99.9% sure it's one of the rubber coolant lines on the turbo. That spray looks identical to my friends evo 8 and we replaced the clamps with worm clamps and it doesn't leak anymore.

 

^Glad to hear that and glad I didnt go ahead and replace the thermostat housing gasket. I will take a closer looks at the rubber lines as well as the clamps and make sure there arent any leaks. I've had them off and on way too many times so they may be a little worn.

 

Go to O'rielly and get a radiator pressure tester. Just pressure your system and see where it is leaking from. Absolutely easiest thing to do. And when you do it cold you will obviously not burn yourself and its not a guessing game.