Hey guys, I recently did a coolant flush in the spring and didn't really touch it after that. I decided to check my rad. yesterday and to my shock it looked dry. So I put about 2 gallons in the rad. and about 1 in the overflow to get it back up to the right level. I don't know at what rate it is disappearing but I do know that my oil is not mixing with it and I have NO coolant leaks. I do have a puff of white smoke come out when I start it and also when the rmps drop off fast. Could that be related to the missing coolant?

I was thinking of messing with the IP timing a little, it only started the white puff of smoke after I replaced the IP. I never timed it with a meter, Should I?

Any thoughts?

 

Coolant could be a few things. I had one truck that kept losing a bit, turned out it was the rad cap not sealing and it would sneak out around it. Airflow from driving and the fan etc dried it off quick enough that it didn't really show without a real close look.

Check all the hose connections, heater hoses, rad hoses etc, and see if there is any signs of dried coolant.

 

I'll check that, what do you think of the white smoke?

 

did the weather turn colder recently? it never fails when the weather turns cold, hose clamps that are just little bit loose will start leaking. how about your heater core, also check around your block heater, and freeze plugs. and finally what dose the white smoke smell like, is it just diesel, or dose it have that kinda sick sweet smell to it. it could be a seeping head gasket.

on another note i just decided to bump my timeing up a little on my 88. made a pretty big diffrence. so id say to advance it a little.

 

I cant smell it, its just a puff right when I start up. I'll check the clamps but like I said, everything is dry. I'm gonna fill it up and keep an eye on it. I'll see how fast its going.....

 

it might be productive to pour a bottle of barrs leaks or similar product in there, as such products can often seal up leaks before they get too bad.

 

They also tend to clog radiators and heater cores... so not always the best option.

 

x2 on the no-go for the stop-leak stuff....

 

Not doing leak stop.

I got a new cap and I will report on the results. I checked it again and the overflow was full but the rad wasn't filled. OK, bad cap? We will see....

 

sounds like what my 84 was doing, with the 12k i put on it, it had about 1.5 gallons gone....

 

my truck also uses antifreeze slowly...... i have a very slow headgasket leak that if i wasn't using the john deere coolant i probably wouldn't have been able to discover. it dripped down onto the crossover pipe and its gold colored and the heat from it running dried it there gold colored.... i looked up and the very back of the head is just barely wet with antifreeze. i add some once every couple of months.....

 

I pored barsleakscrap in my radiator after the belt came off last spring and nicked a little hole in it. Didn't help and It clogged my heater core. I used it before with good results. It's kind of a gamble.

 

I had a ford once that had a small pin hole in the radiator and it leaked so slow that it finally took a mechanic pressurizing the coolant system to 30psi to make it spray out the hole enough for us to see it.

 

I had a similar problem with my truck. It turned out that the intake gasket was leaking into the valley pan, and into the hole towards the back of the pan. The only way I could tell was some white smoke, and loosing coolant of course. But it never leaked on the ground, and eventually when I looked into the valley pan i found a pool.

 

once a week (minimum) is a good idea to check all the fluids under the hood while checking tire pressure.it can save a feller some serious $.
every other oil change (or a couple months-whichever comes first) is a good time to be testing your SCA levels too,so you should have noticed the issue a bit sooner.

the little bit of white smoke on cold start is normal.the block isn't warm enough for a complete burn of the fuel.
if it was white smoke from coolant you'd always see the white smoke even at normal operating temps,and you'd smell coolant out the exhaust.for a complete tune up,timing is very important for max performance and fuel economy.but the little bit of white smoke (increased as temps lower) isn't going to go away with correct engine timing if this is what you mean.

do you mean your seeing white smoke even at operating temp when you left off it quick though?
how often do you push the envelope @ 14psi?