Coolant leak, spewing water under intake manifold ?

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Cgeigert
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Car: 1989 Nissan 240sx

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Car decided to overheat on the way home tonite. It happened quick, I saw a little steam, temp was going up so I pulled over. Popped hood and coolant was leaking somewhere from under intake manifold, alot of coolant. Funny thing was I put like half a bottle of water in radiator and let it cool for less than 5 minutes, then turned it on to get it one block, and the temp was already back in the middle. It's too dark to check it out now but what coolant hoses are under the intake manifold? Can they be replaced without removing the intake manifold?


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htbyrico
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maybe.. get you a presser tester from auto zone see it you can rent it.. add water to full.. hook it up and pump it up to the right presser and see were the leaks coming from get a flash light just in case is tricky to see!! its seem to me it might be a hose that is small a** hell !! good luck bro ill check back with you tomorrow..

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Lobo240sx
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It has to be one of your small coolant hoses that are a PITA to get to without taking off your intake manifold. Swap them out with some good quality silicone ones. Your hands and fingers will thank you later. :)

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Morph
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Hard to say w/out seeing it. I just replaced all of the lines under there and IIRC there was about 5. 2 going to the throttle body, one bypass hose coming off the thermostat housing and 2 bigger hoses that connect to the heater lines that go into the firewall. I got all of the hoses from Autozone, except for the ones going to the TB mine were still fine, for under 20 bucks. Your best bet would be to pull that effer off and replace them all. Removing the IM isnt a cake walk but then again trying to find/replace it with that thing on is going to be a PITA.

Cgeigert
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Car: 1989 Nissan 240sx

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Damn that's what I was worried about I don't want to have to remove the mani. I'll do some work today and see what I can find. What sucks is that I was gonna use it for an Autocross on sunday.

Cgeigert
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Car: 1989 Nissan 240sx

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OK now I'm confused. Made sure rad and reservoir were full and started car to heat it up. It warmed up like normal to the middle spot, and I was getting hot air thru the vents. Saw just a few drops from the area it was leaking but that was it. Drove it a bit and still no water leaking. I looked every which way under the manifold and didn't see anything. Last night it was leaking enough to leave a puddle on the ground, and it looked like it was coming from above the starter somewhere, now nothing.

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Morph
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No burning coolant smell, and how much leaked out?

Cgeigert
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Last night there was so much coolant coming out is was steaming all over the place and alot leaked out, made a puddle on the ground.

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Lobo240sx
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It depends on how hard you were driving, ambient temp, or it just randomly wants to act up. Welcome to the SR20DET world. You are going to have to take the intake manifold apart before you hurt something. I'm telling you it has to be the small coolant hoses under the mani if it is leaking near your starter.

Cgeigert
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I plan to replace the hoses, there's nowhere else the water could have been leaking from. I was just hoping to eyeball it before I tore everything apart.

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PyR0NiAk
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I just went through the same thing. It's about an hour job if you just take the mani off, and replace all of the hoses. The only one that's a b**** is the far front one, because you have to actually remove the housing beside the thermostat.

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htbyrico
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hey it beats taking off the main !!

Cgeigert
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I've taken off the manifold before, but that was on a spare motor not in the car. Should I replace the gaskets while I'm at it? And is there any good DIY with pictures somewhere?

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PyR0NiAk
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Replacing those hoses is pretty self explanatory. You can pick up a new gasket at enjukuracing.com Remember that when you tighten the manifold back down, work from the center to the outside.

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htbyrico
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let us know how it goes !! :bigthumb:

Cgeigert
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Pulled off the manifold, and yeah, that took less than an hour. But pulling off all those hoses under there took another hour cuz they were all caked on and didn't just slip off. I had to cut most of them off, I'll be replacing all of them under there. I'll be heading to napa tomorrow to look for replacements. As long as I can find the right ones putting it all back together should take 2 hours if I'm really being careful and clean stuff before I put it back together.

Cgeigert
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So I think it's fixed now. Gotta make sure coolant is full then I'll drive it and check for leaks. It was a real PITA. I ended up replacing all the hoses, 5 in all. Napa had what I needed, only one fitted hose the rest were just off the roll. It sucked trying to line up all of them and push them all into place. Keeping my fingers crossed it's taken care of now.

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PyR0NiAk
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Good luck.

Cgeigert
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Well I'm not getting any leaks and I have warm air so I'm good to go for now. My hands are still hating me they are destroyed from working in tight spaces.

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PyR0NiAk
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Cgeigert wrote:Well I'm not getting any leaks and I have warm air so I'm good to go for now. My hands are still hating me they are destroyed from working in tight spaces.
I know the feeling.... Congrats on getting it fixed.

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Morph
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Yep same problem here everytime i get into a small spot my hand/arm looks like an emo kid in highschool. Glad its fixed though. I did the same thing but my motor was out of the car and that was still not fun lol.

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Lobo240sx
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Yay another SR20DET on the road. Happy 4U mang. Enjoy it. Yeah that is probably the worst place to work on a SR20 especially with my gorilla hands. :D

Cgeigert
Posts: 225
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Car: 1989 Nissan 240sx

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Well, lucky me my hoses blew again, but on a different car than the one this thread was about. I wish I would have written down the number for the one shaped hose I got at napa. Anybody know the number for the gates hose that works. I don't remember pulling off the intake mani being so difficult, can't seem to pull it off gets jammed on the threads or something

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PyR0NiAk
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Cgeigert wrote:Well, lucky me my hoses blew again, but on a different car than the one this thread was about. I wish I would have written down the number for the one shaped hose I got at napa. Anybody know the number for the gates hose that works. I don't remember pulling off the intake mani being so difficult, can't seem to pull it off gets jammed on the threads or something
Haven't touched mine in a while, but if it's binding, you've most likely still got something attached.

Also, just take the hose to almost any parts store, and they can find a similar one.

Cgeigert
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Joined: Sun Oct 08, 2006 7:43 am
Car: 1989 Nissan 240sx

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Got it off. Seems that in my haste to get it done I forgot to untorque bolts in proper sequence, so I had bent those top two studs. Had to pull the studs then manifold came right off. Found a werid crack right in the middle of the inside of the lower mani, so gonna fill it up with some kind of resin. Found the coolant leak on the inner hose, looks like the inside just wore away until a slit developed. You can see it right above my thumb in pic. So, now I got all the hoses pulled and gonna get replacements from napa. I can just delete the hoses that go to and from the throttle body right? This time I'm gonna unbolt the water outlet neck that has the two sensors in it. Looks like an easier way to replace the two big hoses rather than taking out the three bolts and wrangling the metal hose piece around.

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PyR0NiAk
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Only way you can delete the 2 hoses to/from the TB are if you delete the IACV.

Cgeigert
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Car: 1989 Nissan 240sx

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Umm, well I already deleted those two hoses and car runs fine. I thought they were just to keep TB from icing. How are those hoses and iacv connected? I would have deleted iacv if I could but didn't think there was any benefit to it. I ended up doing a few other things in addition to those five hoses. Everything is back together now and works fine. My hands look like Bruce Campbell's face in Evil Dead. I posted a pic with the part numbers for some of the hoses I used, you have to trim them but the bends fit fine.

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PyR0NiAk
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If I remember correctly, they came off TB and back to the IACV. I could be wrong.... Either way, your IACV uses temps to control idle speed. When engine is cold, it runs a higher rpm...

Cgeigert
Posts: 225
Joined: Sun Oct 08, 2006 7:43 am
Car: 1989 Nissan 240sx

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The iacv has those two little L hoses for coolant temp, I'm talking about the ones that go in and out of the throttle body, which are just to keep it from icing.

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PyR0NiAk
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Car: S13 SR W/ T2 GT3071R .86AR, JWT S4 Cams, 810cc Injectors,Z32 MAF, JWT tuned ECU 87mm 9:1 Compression CP pistons, Manley Rods
Location: Ohio
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Ahhh.... My intake is 100% redone, so no, mine doesn't have those either. I also don't drive it if there's any snow/ice out, though.


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