Coolant Leak
-
Importovermuscle
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Wed Dec 14, 2016 8:04 am
- Car: 1990 Nissan 300zx z32
Coolant Leak
Hey guys, I noticed today I had a coolant leak. I noticed something underneath my car and knew something was wrong, checked in my radiator and there was no coolant in there. I drove it about 10 minutes back home (it never overheated on me) and popped the hood and noticed smoke coming from something close to the radiator on the passenger side very close to the headlight. Any ideas on what it could be?? I replaced the water pump about 8 months ago so I don't think that's the problem. 1990 N/A Automatic
Re: Coolant Leak
yah it wont overheat if it has no coolant. or rather, the temperature sensor wont read properly that your heads are turning to jell-O as they overheat and warp.
there are loads of coolant hoses around the engine. if one has leaked its good practice to go ahead and start ordering a full set of coolant hoses although I'd recommend using transmission hose for the coolant lines because it's chemical resistant and tougher such that a little spray of power steering fluid or motor oil or heat wont melt them right off in a year or less. other options are 5ply silicone hoses from a reputable source, some people have trouble with the chinese hoses bursting from either manufacturing defects or a factory worker trying to make a few bucks digging out reject pipe from the dumpster and reselling it on ebay. you dont need the hundred coolant lines around the intake plenum,you can do a plenum coolant bypass where you just bypass all those extra bits of hose. one exception is if the temperature gets very low and it snows where you live. in this case your throttle bodies can seize in cold weather as the metal shrinks.
if its coming from one particular spot, you'll want to remove the air hose on that side of the engine that connects to the throttle body. these you remove both clips then do a sort of rotation as you wiggle it backwards towards the radiator. if you try to just pull it off it will split as you force it around the throttle body. now the air hose is off, you might need to remove the turbo air hose lower down so you can see the turbo coolant lines. it could be the turbo coolant lines, throttle body coolant lines or plenum coolant lines on the side. but now you've pumped hot steam through your coolant hoses it's a good idea to replace as many as you can. worst case scenario is that your head is blown from running out of water and its spraying out the side of the split head gasket.
coolant is UV reactive so if you get it in a dark garage, royal blue LEDs or UV light will make it shine bright green so you can see where its coming from.
there are loads of coolant hoses around the engine. if one has leaked its good practice to go ahead and start ordering a full set of coolant hoses although I'd recommend using transmission hose for the coolant lines because it's chemical resistant and tougher such that a little spray of power steering fluid or motor oil or heat wont melt them right off in a year or less. other options are 5ply silicone hoses from a reputable source, some people have trouble with the chinese hoses bursting from either manufacturing defects or a factory worker trying to make a few bucks digging out reject pipe from the dumpster and reselling it on ebay. you dont need the hundred coolant lines around the intake plenum,you can do a plenum coolant bypass where you just bypass all those extra bits of hose. one exception is if the temperature gets very low and it snows where you live. in this case your throttle bodies can seize in cold weather as the metal shrinks.
if its coming from one particular spot, you'll want to remove the air hose on that side of the engine that connects to the throttle body. these you remove both clips then do a sort of rotation as you wiggle it backwards towards the radiator. if you try to just pull it off it will split as you force it around the throttle body. now the air hose is off, you might need to remove the turbo air hose lower down so you can see the turbo coolant lines. it could be the turbo coolant lines, throttle body coolant lines or plenum coolant lines on the side. but now you've pumped hot steam through your coolant hoses it's a good idea to replace as many as you can. worst case scenario is that your head is blown from running out of water and its spraying out the side of the split head gasket.
coolant is UV reactive so if you get it in a dark garage, royal blue LEDs or UV light will make it shine bright green so you can see where its coming from.