where does it go?

[pushrod]

I have a 440 in my 69 dart and recently the water in the rad. has been disappearing. Ater a recent 60 mi. trip coolant was down about 4" and resevoir was empty. No water in the oil, no excessive condensation in the exhaust.
Does anyone have a clue? Thanks for your help.

 

[GoodysGotaCuda]

heater core leaking? any water in the trans fluid?

 

[RedFish]

freeze plugs rusted through ? Water blows away or evaporates leaving no evidence other than damp plug itself.

 

[pushrod]

Thanks for the input. There is no evidence of any water in trans as i have a seperate cooler. All freeze plugs appear to be solid. I am almost at wits end,
it just goes to show you that you have never seen it all.

 

[63dartman]

I just had a freind that was trying to hunt down a coolant leak for going on 2 yrs. It turns out that the radiator had a hair line crack on one of the seams. The only way he found it was opening the hood when it was nice and hot. He could see the pressure releasimg through the seam.

 

[demon seed]

If it ain't leaking on the outside so you notice it and the engine oil isn't coming out milky then it must be burning it (yes glycol does burn). A cracked cylinder head maybe letting it in slowly enough to burn off but not enough to give you the white blume out the exhaust pipe. Pull all the spark plugs and you're looking for a plug or 2 that have brown chunky build up on them. Also do a pressure check, with that hand pump you connect to the rad fill neck, when the engine is cold and hot and see if it holds 15 psi . Oh yea, you are running a glycol water mix right.

Terry

 

[fishy68]

Terry has a good point on using a pressure tester. I've had to use mine to find stuborn leaks several times in the past. Sometimes even then it's hard to find the stuborn ones.

Lately I had a slow leaking head gasket leaking on the drivers outside edge and the water would drip right down on the inside of the header tube and evaporate so quickly I didn't see it. Wasn't until it leaked for about 2 weeks that I finally jacked it up and crawled underneath for a real good look and saw the stains on the header.

 

[dusterdon]

Fill the radiator, leave the cap off and start up the car. Let it run long enough to get the thermostat to open. Look for bubbles in coolant. If so, bad head gasket or crack.

 

[radacuda]

Check the water pump, Look closely at the weep hole. Easier to find leak if you have a pressure tester. I have seen some not leak until warmed up and under pressure. Careful when using tester to not exceed psi on rad cap and release pressure on tester before removing from radiator.

 

[70dart]

You may also want to ensure you do not have a bolt lose that goes into a water jacket. A friend oof mine always had overheating problems but he could never see the leak. He asked me to take a look at it one day when it over heated after going a super short distance. This time he was almost out of oil. So the overheating was blamed on that. But then I thought, hey that was too short of a drive even with oil level super low to heat up that fast. Low and behold my hand hit something when I was filling the car with oil. A bolt backed out almost all the way. Never dawned that it was leaking there as it went into a water jacket. This was a mickey moused motor that someone had installed for him about a year ago or less. Ya never know!

 

[pushrod]

Hey guys thanks for the input. I will try the pressure test first and work from there. WIll keeep you posted.I am running glycol mix.

 

[kingcuda]

Bad radiator cap will also purge coolant while driving.

 

[Longgone]

I`m thinking like 70Dart, perhaps an exhaust manifold stud leaking? The other thing could be a radiator that`s partially clogged pushing coolant out the overflow tubing?

 

[daredevil]

just to rule out the obvious i,d install a new rad cap if yours is aged at all