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Car drinks coolant and pees it out

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Old Apr 19, 2012 | 08:00 PM
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Default Car drinks coolant and pees it out

So I noticed yesterday in low speed/traffic the temp guage starts going to

260. I went and bought a jug of antifreeze and poured WAY more coolant

and water than I needed. I mean embarrasingly more ...I poured so

much because it kept going down somewhere but I didn't think anything of it

because I never saw it leaking. Today I drive it and the temp looks good at

about normal 210ish on the dummy guage but then at a stop it starts

massively leaking coolant where water from a/c usually leaks, I mean back

where the transmission sits. I can't find anything on this, I would

appreciate any help/advice on what to do from here. Seems to drive okay

except the massive leaking. Only mod I did recently was ls6 intake but before

that I never had it in heavy traffic to notice a high temp. I would like to know how bad I F'ed up and what next.
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Old Apr 19, 2012 | 08:09 PM
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check your heater core lines or maybe the heater core is shot but i would check the lines going to it first.
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Old Apr 20, 2012 | 07:49 AM
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The weep hole on the water pump will let water out in a place where it follows the block and drips on the AC compressor.
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Old Apr 20, 2012 | 07:56 AM
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Originally Posted by foxrox0620
So I noticed yesterday in low speed/traffic the temp guage starts going to

260. I went and bought a jug of antifreeze and poured WAY more coolant

and water than I needed. I mean embarrasingly more ...I poured so

much because it kept going down somewhere but I didn't think anything of it

because I never saw it leaking. Today I drive it and the temp looks good at

about normal 210ish on the dummy guage but then at a stop it starts

massively leaking coolant where water from a/c usually leaks, I mean back

where the transmission sits. I can't find anything on this, I would

appreciate any help/advice on what to do from here. Seems to drive okay

except the massive leaking. Only mod I did recently was ls6 intake but before

that I never had it in heavy traffic to notice a high temp. I would like to know how bad I F'ed up and what next.
that "leak" from where the a/c water comes out is a drain for the a/c evaporator.
the heater core is in there too. if you're leaking coolant out of there, you need a heater core.
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Old Apr 20, 2012 | 07:39 PM
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Checked heater today sure enough it blows cold air. But I'm not getting any coolant in the carpet like alot of bad heater core cases. Haven't gotten it high enough to trace where exactly its leaking from. Thanks for the responses so far. Just to clarify the symptoms:

Drinks coolant all day

No heat

No leaking thru the car

Leaks fluid back by the transmission

Drives fine, no overheating

I'm going to try to trace the leak, in case its a hose leak before purchasing a heater core.
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Old Apr 20, 2012 | 10:52 PM
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If the coolant is leaking on the AC compressor, its probably a bad water pump. The weep hole is behind the pulley and you won't be able to "see" the leak.
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Old Apr 22, 2012 | 12:38 AM
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Originally Posted by foxrox0620
Today I drive it and the temp looks good at

about normal 210ish on the dummy guage but then at a stop it starts

massively leaking coolant where water from a/c usually leaks, I mean back

where the transmission sits.
Guys, seriously the AC compressor is not by the transmission.

Also I doubt the heater core is leaking since it's on the outside of the car. Since you said you swapped your intake for an LS6 I'm taking it you blocked off the coolant crossover on the back of the block?

Did you use new block off gaskets on the coolant plugs?

That would drip down the back of the block and down the transmission and also let all kinds of air into the water system and since your heater core is near the top of it air will migrate to it first, causing you to blow cool air out of the heater. That's what I would suspect right off the bat, in fact that is the only place where coolant flows in the back unless you blew a head gasket but I think you would have spotted that by now.
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Old Apr 22, 2012 | 10:22 AM
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Also I doubt the heater core is leaking since it's on the outside of the car. Since you said you swapped your intake for an LS6 I'm taking it you blocked off the coolant crossover on the back of the block?

Did you use new block off gaskets on the coolant plugs?

That would drip down the back of the block and down the transmission and also let all kinds of air into the water system and since your heater core is near the top of it air will migrate to it first, causing you to blow cool air out of the heater. That's what I would suspect right off the bat, in fact that is the only place where coolant flows in the back unless you blew a head gasket but I think you would have spotted that by now.
Apologies for my ignorance...Firechicken you may have nailed it. All I did was follow ls1howto's video I'm still not sure what I did or didn't do to the coolant pipes. The ls6 I got was already grinded off to fit the 98'-00' coolant piping so I kept it at that. I still need to block off the coolant crossover? Is there anywhere online showing what exactly that should look like? Thanks.

Edit: After reading other threads it shouldn't have made any difference using the old coolant crossover. Maybe I caused it to leak when doing the knock sensors and didn't realize it. Not leaking from heater core hoses or heater core. Stumped.

Last edited by foxrox0620; Apr 22, 2012 at 03:23 PM.
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Old Apr 23, 2012 | 03:18 PM
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Thought I'd update, had it checked out, and it is coming from the crossover pipe. It looked like it had surface rust but I didn't think twice. The leak from the crossover pipe was what took out my knock sensors.
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