My leak, continued....

[kcobean]

I *thought* I had a leaking coolant hose back near the heater core that was leaking only at temperature. I would get a small amount of steam out from under the hood, but only when stopping the first few times after reaching operating temperature. After that, the smell of coolant was present, but no more steam. I replaced the clamps for both of the short heater core hoses with worm-drive type clamps and they're on nice and tight.

I still get a very strong coolant smell in and outside the car (I suspect that the 'inside' presence of coolant smell is due to coolant steam/vapor in the engine compartment being sucked into the blower intake), and there is always a SMALL puddle of coolant on the shelf just inboard of the blower motor (right next to the #8/10 cylinders.) I have no coolant on the floor though.

Does that sound to anyone like a head-gasket leaking? If so, do I need to be concerned with water getting in my oil?

 

[Camfab]

Pull the dipstick and check the oil, if water is getting in there it will be milky. Are you sure the heater core is not leaking. Can you idle the car, from cold to operating temp with the hood up?

 

[klamathpro]

Do a coolant pressure test. You can rent the tester kit from Autozone or any other auto store in your area. I highly doubt it's your head gaskets. It might be a hose. You need to do a coolant leakdown test at 16 PSI to see where it's leaking. And those worm clamps need to be TIGHT. And I mean TIGHT! I had every worm clamp I installed leak. I had to tighten mine down hard to stop every leak I had after doing my head gaskets.

 

[RAYSIR]

The place you describe the leak is right where 2 hoses connect to pipes running along the head going to the water pump. It's really rare to get a headgasket leak between an oil passage and coolant passage but sometimes leak coolant to the outside. Usually it's a leak from clyinder (high pressure) to the coolant. We use our 4 gas and measure for HC in the radiator fill bottle when the cars running hot after thermostat has opened. Good luck hope it's an easy fix.