losing coolant somewhere, not over heating. need help

[suprafanatic]

so as some of you know recently my ct60-1 turbo took a dump, the car was losing coolant, and over heating. I bought a Lipp Boss turbo which iam EXTREMLY impressed by.. well i got the car running and everything seemed great untill the spark plugs started sputtering and missing under a heavy load, so i replace them all. that problem was solved. Car drives amazingly, has great oil pressure, holds a steady temp. just below the mid point. The only problem the car is still having is it seems to be losing some coolant somewhere, however, the car does not over heat at all. The first two times i drove it i let it sit and cool off after wards and then i poped off the coolant cap and it was low, down about 1 1/2 inches in the radiator. so i filled it up and drove it agian, let it cool off and checked and it was down about 1 1/2in agian. Iam completly lost as to why i keep losing coolant, i see no leaks anywhere. if anyone has any ideas or suggestions please say so! thanks!

 

[92TealSupra]

so as some of you know recently my ct60-1 turbo took a dump, the car was losing coolant, and over heating. I bought a Lipp Boss turbo which iam EXTREMLY impressed by.. well i got the car running and everything seemed great untill the spark plugs started sputtering and missing under a heavy load, so i replace them all. that problem was solved. Car drives amazingly, has great oil pressure, holds a steady temp. just below the mid point. The only problem the car is still having is it seems to be losing some coolant somewhere, however, the car does not over heat at all. The first two times i drove it i let it sit and cool off after wards and then i poped off the coolant cap and it was low, down about 1 1/2 inches in the radiator. so i filled it up and drove it agian, let it cool off and checked and it was down about 1 1/2in agian. Iam completly lost as to why i keep losing coolant, i see no leaks anywhere. if anyone has any ideas or suggestions please say so! thanks!

From what you say it seems like you may have a coolant leak through the head gasket. Now I now the temperature is not rising, and that does not mean you will over heat. have you run the car in the drive way? maybe put some load on it and inspect to see if there are any leaks, maybe when you drive it comes out where you cannot see it, if you could do that and check that would help you.

Now if nothing happens and you look and all of a sudden there is still a loss in coolant, you need to get a block tester to see if you have gases in your coolant. These testers are not to much, and you can pick one up at your local automotive store.

If you get that and you still find out that there is no problems, check under your carpet, you might be leaking through the cab.. lol I am kidding, ( I mean I hope I am kidding )


Well, you can try that, just see what you come up with, good luck.

 

[suprafanatic]

the car has been compression tested and a block tester was done by the toyota dealership. both test were good... only thing i can think of is if its leaking under a load while driving and not just while sitting at idle. if it was doing that then i wouldnt see the leak.. i'll try your suggestions and possibly redo the comp. test and block tester.

 

[grimreaper]

Pressure check the cooling system. With it pressurized you should be able to find an external leak fairly easy.

 

[MKIIINA]

if you did a compression test and it came back good id look away from a bhg. check your radiator cap. if its old, replace it. cheap and easy way to eliminate things.

everyone wants to always jump on the bhg bandwagon, jeeze... other things can go wrong with a cooling system!

 

[grimreaper]

dont just buy parts! ^^ you can test the radiator cap as well!

 

[rumptis]

Glad to hear you got your supra going...didn't figure you would have it on the road that quick.

Have you only had to add coolant twice since you put the new turbo on?

Is it pulling coolant from the over flow?

 

[MKIIINA]

in this case its cheaper to buy a new rad cap then a new tool to test it for how little you use it. a new cap is less than $15 and a cap tester is over $40. show me the economic sense in that!

ps. make sure you get the right cap! i have been given caps for everything from a mk4 to a celica, to a ford pickup (still can't figure out how that happened...) check it before you leave!

also did you bleed the cooling system? its entirely possible you are simply working out air bubbles in the system and that could contribute to your "loss". hows your overflow bottle looking?

 

[IwantMKIII]

mine does this as well, however it most likely not a HG issue if you've ever done a proper MHG swap before...which you should've by now with that turbo. Odds are there is a small hold in the resevior or something. Im on my second resevior right now (one pre and post engine fire) both did the same thing and im never low on coolant. Unless i have a mysterious coolant bandit (similar to the one that steals one out of every pair of my socks), im going with small leak somewhere as i have an HKS stopper on engine, so im not all that worried about BHG......ever.

edit: as a couple mentioned a likely source is a bad rad cap too

 

[grimreaper]

in this case its cheaper to buy a new rad cap then a new tool to test it for how little you use it. a new cap is less than $15 and a cap tester is over $40. show me the economic sense in that!

funny because the tester can be rented at autozone for FREE.

 

[MKIIINA]

why rent when you can buy!

j/k usually if i need to do a job once and think i'll need to do it again i just buy the specialty part. {shrug}

 

[rawmk3]

Have you checked the heater core? Is there any leaking in the cab. Or the vaccume actuator for it on the firewall? Could that have been cracked at sometime? Maybe leaking there. Cant you get one of the dye's for the cooling system from auto zone that hit with a UV or Black light will show u if you have an external leak, or one in the cylinders for that matter? I thought I have seen something like that available. I have an issue like that, but I know its a BHG.

 

[suprafanatic]

Ok, one other thing i forgot to mention. The car is pushing some coolant out of the over flow tank, but not much.
As for the radiator cap, it is a Greddy 1.3 bar that i borrowed off Boostlee, and it is less than 2 years old. However, when i poped the hood after driving the car i heard air hissing out of the rad. cap.
The Heater core is fine as well.
So if my car doesnt have BHG, what else could cause it to be pushing coolant out?

 

[grimreaper]

Pressure check the cooling system. With it pressurized you should be able to find an external leak fairly easy.

 

[IwantMKIII]

Ok, one other thing i forgot to mention. The car is pushing some coolant out of the over flow tank, but not much.
As for the radiator cap, it is a Greddy 1.3 bar that i borrowed off Boostlee, and it is less than 2 years old. However, when i poped the hood after driving the car i heard air hissing out of the rad. cap.
The Heater core is fine as well.
So if my car doesnt have BHG, what else could cause it to be pushing coolant out?

i believe you answered your own question

 

[rumptis]

If the rad cap is good and its hissing which is shouldn't do it's either the rad cap is bad or the car is overheating and your gauge is not reading correctly.

You said it was overheating before, I doubt changing the turbo would fix an overheating problem.

I bet you still have the problem but maybe with the cooler outside temperatures is just not as bad.

As I told you the other day it could be the Rad is clogged.

 

[92TealSupra]

You're getting air into he system. Then as you can tell you're leaking out the radiator cap, you will need a new one, if the system is not pressurized correctly, then these things can happen because they are allowing it two, radiator cap..

 

[rawmk3]

What kind of fans are you using? If your temp gauge is bad, and you have done a compression check and a block test and no BHG, you could have either a wrongly configured electric fan ( pusher instead of puller) or a bad fan clutch. Have you checked those? If stock fan is on there, Is all of the shroud there?

 

[jdub]

Jeez man, frigging pressure test the coolant system like you've been told (twice) to do. Speculation is meaningless...make sure it holds pressure!

One thing that will draw air into the system is a bad hose from the radiator to the coolant bottle, as well as the one inside the bottle.

 

[FranklinWaters]

How is your Radiator? Mine had a tiny hole it letting out coolant but I never saw a puddle under the car and my car was never over heating.