hertelbrian

started up car for first time in about week and a half - 2 weeks. starts pouring smoke out of engine bay.

i pop hood, and seeing it from the exhuast manifold... it looks like coolant (green radioactive looking ****). small puddles on top of intake manifold, and around the valve covers... just looks damp and wet everywhere.

i've noticed a my coolant slowly disapearing too..

background info... 81 corvette.. original everything motors never been rebuilt. about 60K miles. (coolant cap is pretty home made... saran wrap w/ an elastic band, but its bone dry)

can coolant leak out? burn up in motor?
Please help w/ ideas or costs... i can use a wrench.. wouldnt say i'm the greatest though

Jim71Vette

geeezz ... if you can use saran wrap and rubber bands, you should be able to use a caulking gun with some bath tub caulk and fix that manifold leak in a jiffy -- LMAO

big_G

Bubba, how have you been?....J/K...Look for a cut in a coolant hose....

hertelbrian

had to do something... and i couldnt find anywhere that had a cap, and it does the job....

so any help or you just going to laugh?

pws69

I very seriously doubt that "it does the job" - all it DOES do is stop the coolant from splashing out when you go around a corner!

Go buy yourself a new 15lb cap and start over!

hertelbrian

its not from the cap of the coolant resivoir... that area is bone dry

Boofers

When I bought my 77 the intake was rusty from coolant leaks as you can see in the pic below.



My solution was to put on an aftermarket aluminum intake with all new gaskets. If you want to keep your stock intake your best bet is to deal with each leak, one at a time; If you have a leaking gasket, replace it. If you find a loose fitting, tighten it. Maybe you have cracked hoses that need to be replaced, etc.

As far as coolant getting into the engine the easiest way is to check your plugs - a very white plug is possible burning coolant in the combustion chamber. Another thing to look for is oil in your coolant, which will give your coolant a brown color. Another sign is white smoke out the tailpipe with the engine running. Possible causes - cracked heads, cracked intake...

hertelbrian

thank you so much,

EXACTLY the kind of response i was looking for...

very very very very very very very very very helpful

pef427

Check your oil. If it's milky looking (blown headgasket) don't try to start the engine. Check the radiator coolant and if it's oily/milky looking you have a blown headgasket or intake gasket prob. If those look OK, try to see where the water appears to be coming from...heater hose,radiator hose, head gasket, intake gasket, water pump etc.
If no luck then have someone start the car (briefly) while you look for source of leak. Then go to an auto parts store and check the "HELP" section for a replacement cap for the overflow cannister. Junk yards usually have an abundance of these since most GM's can be interchanged. Good Luck.
Oh, FYI, don't ever admit to rigging any vette...ever...it's "like a turd in the punch bowl" as my friend says.

Twin_Turbo

Check the heater hoses, sometimes the wrong hoseclamps are us3ed, the kind that digs in and causes a small pinhole leak, barely noticeable untill you smell antifreeze and the engine stutters due to the fact that the distributer gets soaked

Aflac

#1 change the cap... #2 look at all radiator and heater hoses... sounds like a possible leak...

71406

Some auto parts stores will lend tools to their customers. If yours does, see if they have a cooling system pressure tester. You attach it to the radiator when cold and pump it up to about 15 pounds. It should help identify where the leak (if it is a leak) is coming from.

Bud640

Dude, Did you learn that trick from NASCAR? This little baby right here. Fixed it.

Techno

At least your coolant is green. Not having a radiator cap does two very bad things.
Coolant now boils at a low temperture and its suppose to keep the heads and stuff cool. Pressurizing the system raises the boiling point. It also keeps steam pockets from forming on the hottest areas of the heads.
The cap also allows the cooling coolant to fill the radiator again. So you've been running with low coolant in the engine too. Unless you filled it with coolant before every trip.


Hopefully you just have a simple leak, gasket or hose or something. It might might be a warped head.
Unless a hose is spraying it definately is leaking, probably the head gasket or the intake gasket.

second76

I bought an ENGINE COOLANT RECOVERY TANK CAP - EARLY 77 from corvette central part # 243111 for 7 bucks.