Coolant leaking from head area!!

[siksII]

I have a coolant leak which was not picked up when i changed my water pump which was leaking too...

Looks like it may be the head gasket, may also be a coolant line to the tubo but this is not likely...

in the attached pic u can see where the coolant is running down the sill located where the head joins the block, and then runs down the gearbox onto the road.

I have tried using chemi-bond to stop it, ill see how that goes...but otherwise i find it odd that the head gasket is leaking when it was changed 50k ago. Anyone else had these problems?

Got quoted around $1000. including crack testing head...machining anything etc. Does this sound right? (in case the chemi bond doesnt work )

[pushead]

so you already changed your water pump ? did you get your radiator compression tested? might be a leak along the pipes.

[siksII]

Yeah had a pressure test done...they had to leave it at a higher than normal pressure for quite a while till the coolant flowed out of the head area. I had the whole system flushed too so yeah no other leaks apart from this one.

They said that it will generally leak when the car is turned off because this is when the built up pressure tries to escape.

[B-Man]

Dude - Didn't you take your car to Hills to get the water pump fixed ?

what happened ?

PM me.

Cheers,

[wrxhoon]

u can get the head serviced clean ,valve grind, crack test and set the valve clearences ( they are a pain in the rse to set cause they are hydrolic bucket and sim ) for $270 if u take the cil head to them . then u need a vrs gasket set about $ 200 from nissan then the labour to r+r the cil head at $500 i think a bit high u say u changed the head gasket 50k ( u mean 50k k's i hope and not just 50k's ) i maybe a cracked head u wont know until it comes out .

[pushead]

also might be a veryyy simple problem. The radiator cap might be leaking pressure. Check the seals around it .

[wrxhoon]

if theradiator cap is leaking the coolant would come out on the radiator pushead and not on the cil head .

[siksII]

wrxhoon: thankyou for your info..although im not quite sure i understand it all.

Yes it was changed 50,000kms ago...so its a bit surprising that something is wrong already.

I hope its not a cracked cylinder head!

Do u u guys reckon it is worthwhile getting a metal head gasket, keeping in mind i plan to run higher boost than standard along with other mods later on? (one which maintains the stock compression ratio, as i already have forged pistons which slightly lower the c/r anyway)

b-man:

i went back, the found nothing wrong with what they did with the water pump. So they fitted it correctly, BUT they reckon they pressure tested it. If they had done that, this leak would have been found the first time around instead of this time. I wasted a day to find out about this leak.

So the price of $1000 is ok? including a regular head gasket that is?

Do u think it may be a coolant line to the turbo?

[wrxhoon]

price is a little high for labour at $500 .as for a metal head gasket it depends on how much boost u want to run up to about 18 psi is ok on the stock gasket .

to be 100% sure where the coolant is coming from u have to pressurise the the radiator and wach it coming out cause it could be coming from anywhere around that area .

[siksII]

Ah ok, but i got quoted that price from two different places...

The only place u can see the coolant leaking is from around cylinder 6. The problem is, even if it was leaking from a turbo line or another cylinder, u cant see it as the turbo and heat shield hide everything.

If u know a good place to go that might be better value, post it here...

[wrxhoon]

sorry couldnt tell u cause i do all the work on my cars myself , i dont take them anywhere . i had a problem with my rex the brent keypad imobiliser played up it was under waranty , i took it to subaru parramatta and when i got it back they left all the screws of the dash undone 2 weeks later when i was cleaning the car i realised then when i looked in the centre console the left all the clips out thats the kind or work they do ! another time a while ago we took a car to change the steering rack ( leaking ) under waranty and they didnt put the split pins on the tie rods lucky i checked otherwise i could have lost steering while driving . i only ever take cars back for waranty work , even when under waranty i do my own service work that way i know its done .

the reason i said $500 a bit high cause cil head r+r is about 4 hours work if u know what u r doing so $120 per hour a bit high i thought $70 -80 would be more like it .

[siksII]

I am tempted to remove and refit the head myself, as like you, i dont trust too many people to do a good job. I trust one mechanic, as my family and i have known him for around 20 years....he never rips off n does good work. But yeah if i had the tools, i would do it myself

Ive lost faith in the standard head gasket, so i would probably go for a metal one if i can get the cash.

[wrxhoon]

the standard gasket is ok unless u r running huge boost 18-20 psi + and u couldnt do that with stock turbo on a rb25 det .

i had a gtir and was running 20psi on stock h/gasket without any probs .

u dont need any special tools to do a h/gasket as long as u have a torque rench and nornal hand tools . where abouts are u in sydney ? i may be able to lend u whatever u havent got if u like .

how much boost are u running ? stock turbo ?

[Chucky]

My car is in the workshop right now getting a new water pump and timing belt. Over the weekend i serviced my radiator and i guess the waterpump couldn't take it.

One questing, my heater hasen't been working very good this last month, do you think this could be because the waterpump was on the way out?

[Chucky]

$450 for a genine nissan water pump and timing belt. + they filled the radiator up again. she aint leaking no more.

[sinisteR32]

make sure whoever is replacing the head gasket is actually doing this not just running some stop leak thru the system. has happened to a guy at my work. it started leaking again after about 50000kms. (they still charged him for the head gasket machining the head, etc so it cost him close to $1000 for some stop leak.)

[siksII]

Originally posted by Chucky

$450 for a genine nissan water pump and timing belt. + they filled the radiator up again. she aint leaking no more.

chucky: Thats a good price if it includes labour, otherwise its bad cuz gen nissan water pump is 150 and timing belt 100. About the heater..the coolant flows through the heater core, which then heats your air..so maybe there was crap stuck in your heater core, which has now been flushed out when the coolant was replaced. Unless there was barely any water in the system, it wouldnt have been related to the water pump.(i may be wrong.)

wrxhoon, id like to try and take it all apart myself, i think i could but since i have not seen it done before im not 100% confident... i live in the city..have u changed a gasket before? If you know what exactly to do, then id like to try it out, with your help. If u dont mind and have the time.... it would save me quite a bit on labour im guessing... I dont have a torque wrench, i was just compaining to my friend about this tonight...

My car is basically standard, running standard boost and turbo.

im hoping its just a coolant line or something..

i live inner city...whereabouts r u?

[wrxhoon]

i have done many engine rebuilds not just cil heads and i have all the nececesary tools to do it , i live in the hills area . if u run stock boost then stock h/gasket is fine . my gtr has stock h/gasket and 16 -17 psi without any probs . i had a gtir with 20 psi on stock h/gasket no probs but thats a bit high though .

if u want to do the job ur self i can help u out with all the info u want no probs prepared to lent u a torque rench as well .

do u do your own work omn yopur car usualy ? how much experience do u have ?

[siksII]

I have only done very basic stuff like changing engine and gearbox oil, filters etc... but i think i have a fair idea of how most things work, and want to learn more, i like working on my car myself.

if ur prepared to help me out, i wouldnt mind driving over and paying you for your time, cuz at least id be learning....

[wrxhoon]

if u are prepared to come to my place in west pennant hills i'll help u out . i got all the tools that we may need here ,like pressure cleaner , jacks compressor .........

pm or email [email protected] , i check everyday .

cheers , jerry