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I am loosing about 250 ml of coolant a weak through a drip comming somewhere from the right side of the engine. Do the space confines I could not determine where the leak is comming from. I know it is not comming from any of the hose junctions however since those were easily checked.

The leak/drip only occurs when the engine is warming up and stops as soon as the engine begins to warm up.

No white smoke from the exhaust.

My question is this, because the leak is relatively small, does anyone recommend the use of colant system sealant or am I flirting with danger here.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Marco

Could I suggest you have the system pressure tested and you maybe able to detect the actual leak. Once you know what it is, you could repair it properly rather than do a band-aid job.

MD,

thanks for the sugestion. Pressurizing the system will certainly tell me I have a leak, the problem is it won't tell me where the leak is.

Marco

Adding plumber's fluroscene dye to the coolant water will result in an extremely bright colour to be created in the fluid. Under pressure when the fluid is released,the leak should be visible from Mars !

Use of a U.V. light will also help.

Good luck.

MD,

that's exactly the advice I needed!

I'll give that a shot. Thanks so much for the sugestion.

Cheers,

Marco

Leak Found!

Turns out to be a weeping headgasket just below the exaust manifold.

I have verified that no water is mixing with oil, and my compression is fine.

Since it is not leaking badly I am currently trying the cheap fix with Wynn's Radiator Leak stop. Will let you know how this works out.

Marco

Please don't use that stuff, when I rebuit my engine, the previous owner used that stuff or something similiar and I spend hours cleaning out the block, liners, heads, radiator. The stuff blocks up the passages in the radiator, sticks to the outside of the liners and basically insulates them and keeps the heat from the liners from being absorbed by the water/coolant. It is very nasty stuff. Try retorquing your head before using that, there are several threads on how to retorque your head on the site, and I really think that would be a better solution.

SamW,

too late! Damn.

I will drain and flush the system this weekend, hopefully it won't have messed things up to much.

With respect to the head bolts, I did check the torque of them and they were well within spec > 80 ft/lbs. I don't wan't to over torque them so I'll go the new head gasket route.

Interestingly in the official workshop manual, Alfa Romeo specs. a leak sealer which I could not get a hold of.

Thanks for the advice.

Cheers,

Marco

Marco,

Read a few of the threads on torquing the heads, I think I am in need of this too, I have a thread on spark plug color. But from what I have read, mark each of the nut so you can see if their alignment changes after a re-torque. Then re-torque the head with the same torque setting, but see if the bolts actually move a little tighter, then keep re-torqueing until the bolts quit moving, and make sure you oil the nuts. From what I have read, it is not unusual for this to happen when torquing head bolts/nuts. I am going to give this a shot on mine. Which side is leaking on yours?

I've just replaced the water pump on mine and now with the extra pressure has started to leak coolant out of both heads. Spotted it sitting in the engine mounts. So gonna pull the heads and replace the head gaskets. I think that was the reason also for the engine running quite roughly. Water getting in to the cylinder? Fouling the plugs. When I pulled them a couple looked to be wet with coolant. At least the thing will be sorted. Tim.

tImBoWe

Just out of curiosity, how old are your head gaskets?

Marco

I've only had the car for a month now. But Looking at them I'd say its the first time they been off. Any telltale signs of originallity? BTW the car has travelled 130'kms.

Tim

Jeez, that's not bad at all then.

My issue is that my motor had been completely overhauled by an Alfa specialist and has no more than 5000 km on it. So I'm a little suprised to have developed a leak so soon.

Sam,

with respect to re-torqueing do you mean that I should mark them first, untorque them, then retorque them?


Marco

Yes, mark them, then retorque them, in the proper order, one at a time, and if they move (if the mark does not line up the way it was before torquing, moves more in a clockwise direction), then retorque again, after retorquing the others and see if it moves more, continue the process until they quit moving after retorquing. If this makes sense. Sort of the idea that if you torque one bolt/nut it may relieve torque on the others, so you just keep going until things stop moving. I know there is a better description on this site somewhere.

I have the opposite problem on mine, seems my coolant is leaking into the combustion chamber, but I am not leaking combustion into the coolant. I am going to do this on my head and see if it stops, the only way I can tell this is happening is that my sparks plugs on the right head have all turned orange, same color as my coolant, I was lucky to find it, the car runs great, I was checking for oil consumption...

Just drained and flushed the cooling system.

The leak sealer certainly did it's job and the weeping from the headgasket has stopped.

I had used Wynn's Premium radiator leak stop. I called the Wynn's distributer and asked him about the product. He was admant that it would not create deposits or sludge in the cooling system and is actually beneficial for the water pump because of it's lubricating qualities.

Any way it's out of the system and it did the job.

Marco