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Coolant Leak

3

310toumad

New member
So I recently changed LIM gaskets, valve cover gaskets, injector o-rings, etc. All went pretty well, but I think I may have a small coolant leak somewhere. The level in the recovery tank continues to drop (its been about 3 weeks since I changed the gaskets) and I keep having to top it off. I used RTV in the corners, looked around the edges of the manifold and saw no leaks there. No leaks around the thermostat housing or radiator hoses either. Today, I jacked the car up to tighten the bolts on my lower motor mount, and I noticed small beads of coolant on the underside of the sub-frame, as if they had trickled down from somewhere. I haven't really noticed coolant pooling on the garage floor. The only thing I can think of is that its coming from one of the coolant elbows on the drive belt tensioner. I replaced the crappy plastic ones with the metal elbows, and naturally they shattered when trying to take them out. I was able to get the one that goes into the manifold out easily, but the other one was really wedged in there. Unfortunately, I nicked the surface inside this port on the tensioner trying to scrape out the old elbow, put some RTV around the elbow to try and help but I guess it didn't. You can't really see this elbow with everything put back together, I can see the one going into the manifold and there are no leaks, so it has to be coming from the other one. If I got a mirror with a handle could I see it? I'd just like to verify this is where the leak is, and then I guess I have to get a new tenioner if that's the case. Damn those stupid plastic parts.
 


you can stick your fingers in to the lower elbow, car off, and feel if its wet. if its wet pull the alt bracket back off clean the holes better. i've used some 120 grit sandpaper to clean em up. oil the oil o rings and slide it all back together.

make sure you got all the old elbow out too.

ive never used rtv, but others have, you need to put the rtv inside the holes, not on the outside edge.
 
Yeah I'm pretty sure I got all the old pieces out. I could visually see the scratch and feel it with my fingernail, don't know if sanding will smooth it out but I'll try. I'll try to reach down there and see if its wet around the elbow.
 
mine had a hard varnish like film inside all the holes, it could be scraped off, or sanded i found.

if you got a deep scratch try a smear of rtv on the elbow and install it. little rtv goes a long way, no need to go nuts with it.
 
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