Hey guys... I have had a coolant leak for a while now, but just a couple days ago, I caught it dripping (it never did before, just burnt of).. anyway, just wondering if any of you would know what it is just by knowing the area of the drip. It is dripping down from the firewall on the drivers side, but more in the middle. Could this be a heater core hose? I originally thought the oil cooler hoses... its hard to see underneath the car, or even in the engine bay.. LOL

 

heater lines go in on the passenger side. right beside the AC on your car. near the top. it could be traveling down the firewall and over to the other side.

how was it buring off before if it is running down the firewall

 

If its around the middle of the engine, I'm thinking intake...

Heater hoses are on passenger side right beside the a/c (if you have it) else they should be quite easy to see going into the firewall. As for checking if there's a leak at the hoses, I'd just wrapped the hoses at the firewall with some cloth and gunned the engine with heater on for a few mins to check... unfortunately for my leak at the time, it was actually with the heater core itself. That's a pain to replace when its 10 years old lol.

 

Not sure if they changed things from year to year, but on mine, there is a metal heater hose that runs down the frame rail on the passanger side and comes up at the back of the motor. It does connect to the heater core. It is rubber hose at this point.
Maybe just a pinhole, spraying the firewall.

 

Hmmm... could be the back of the intake, I always assumed the intake would leak on the sides, not the back. Now thats gonna be fun.

 

I can't see your intake leaking coolant, it's all encased in water jackets unless one is cracked.

 

Could even be something simple, like a loose clamp. There are coolant clamps where the rubber hose connects to the metal one, at the back of the motor.

 

On my 89 RS (305, TBI) I experienced a similar problem about a year ago, it was the intake manifold gasket. When I mentioned it to my buddy who is a technician he mentioned that when the fail they ususally do so towards the back of the engine. I am assuming that the same holds true for the TPI engines, so check it out, based off how you described it I would say its the same thing.

Good Luck!

 

I had the same problem, in my case it was one of the heater core hoses(shaped like a question mark),it had a little pin hole in it that leaked when under pressure.It was a bitch to change!

 

Try tightening all hoses. (Its overtightened when the hose is squeezing out of the clamps a lot.) Ensure not of the hoses are breaking apart. Any hose that expands and contracts a lot when revving is just begging to break soon. Replace those hoses. Then if all that doesn't solve it, odds are its an intake leak. Although rare, when a car isn't winter run, and just sits the whole winter the coolant can corrode at the gaskets and cause a leak. Or just even if normally run, if the coolant is old too. Its just a thought, but I think that's why they recommend a flush every year to a year and a half.

 

I'll head to the do it yourself garage and put it on the hoist and see if I can find anything from underneath

 

Bad news... well maybe *** news in disguise... IT IS THE INTAKE GASKET So.... since I am the king of the "Might As Well" way of thinking... I will be shopping for a cam, and getting the TPiS intake with some porting mods... still have to look into it. Going to see if the car will last the rest of the summer before I do the gasket.

 

Sorry to hear that... when it rains it pours... then again, it could be good... either way, its still a good amount of work and $$$...


I hate it when my guesses are right... then again, if you got cash to burn. Since the inakte will be off anyways, might as well I say. Good luck with it.

 

Yeah... I think the car will hold out until winter, then I can take my time and do a few more things while I am at it.

 

yeah nate I had this problem when I just bought my car.
It was the heatercore.
what a pain it is to clean up eh!