fire-chickens

i have a problem what i thought was just air in the coolant system from not being bled after the new waterpump was installed on my 1996 firebird formula. i filled it a few nights in a row to the top let it bubble back down, topped it off and put the cap back on and drove and repeated it for a few days until i figured when i would check it the level would be at the cap when its cold, but I'm still having to fill it up?!?! why am i losing coolant? it doesn't smoke, the ground in my garage is completely dry and it doesn't leak when its running when i check it after I've driven it for a while... the pump has all new hoses going to it as well.

LS-1Z28

iTrader: (6)

how much coolant/water mixture have you put in?

I've never been able to just dump coolant into my system all at once... It usually takes a minute for the air to make its way out of the system before you can start to fill it up again. I believe your car has a 12 quart coolant capacity. When I filled mine I filled it up with 2 x 1 gallon jugs of dexcool coolant and added about 2 more 1 gallon jugs full of water.

Hope this helps.

fire-chickens

well i premixed them myself, took one empty put half of the coolant into the other so both had 50% coolant, then filled both to the top with water and shook them. So far I have about 1/4 of a gallon left of the first bottle (i have 2 bottles of 50/50 1 gallon each) bottle of 50/50 that was from ONE gallon. and my mechanic is the one who put the water pump on, so i figured the level would be good but when i checked it it took a bit less than 1/4 of the gallon last week, i would let it bubble down then top it off then bubble down a bit more then top it off and be good to go. then a few days later when i go to drive it again i had to do the same thing, so far I've done it about 4 times, but in those 4 days I've only used 3/4's of the 1 gallon jug. how many times should i have to do this until the level stays the same?

LS6427

iTrader: (2)

You're not bleeding it properly.

Star it cold with the cap off.
Stand there and wait for the t-stat to open and you see the coolant start to flow.
The level should drop down.
IMMEDIATELY start topping it off because that t-stat will start to close in about 10 seconds.
Usually thats all it takes.
But stand there and wait for the t-stat to open one more time and top it off if the level drops down.

Thats it. No more air.

.

fire-chickens

but where did the 3/4's of a gallon of coolant go? shouldn't that still be there? the level is still dropping down to where it was when i began to fill it last week. i figured if anything it would be a bit higher after adding that much more coolant. it should still take less every time i go to fill it shouldn't it, cause its still technically bleeding the air out just not as quickly?

LS6427

iTrader: (2)

Just do the bleed tomorrow like I explained. If you still have low fluid levels than you have a leak...and I would bet a its a blown head gasket that isn't that bad yet.

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LS6427

iTrader: (2)

You also need to go for a drive till theengine totally gets up to normal operating temp. Pull into the driveway, shut the engine off and literally watch for leaks for a good 20 minutes. If you have ramps put the front end up so you can get under there to look for leaks.

Sometimes there are pinhole leaks that you will not see until the engine is shut down and the pressure increases for a little while. The coolant pisses out, then when it cools that pinhole will suck in air. And it can be such a small leak that the leaking coolant might never even reach the ground to make a puddle.

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great421

iTrader: (1)

2X vote.

For mine, the rear three head bolts on the pass side we just a touch tighter than 'snug' - I guess the boost yielded the torque-to-yield bolts - replaced them with ARP stainless - much better!