Mysterious coolant leak.. ideas?

[srl135]

Heres the story, got the shift keys replaced in my transmission and when i picked it up the shop told me i had a coolant leak out the back of the engine and they thought it was a blown head gasket (They are T56 guys, not Cobra guys) but they didnt know about the cooling mod. I let it sit for a few days, noticed some coolant leak but not enough to move the level in the tank, then let it sit again over a weekend without moving it and found another small puddle.

Got it on the lift to check out the leak and a TOB (vibrating clutch pedal) and the ONLY place we found ANY coolant was on the clutch fork and and on the rubber-accordian-thing on the clutch cable because we had already removed the inspection port cover for the clutch. The back of the engine was dry, the line to the cooling mod was dry, the undercarraige is dry, the bellhousing was dry. Not a lot of coolant, just enough to notice..just a small coating. In fact, everything looks clean.. Any ideas?

 

[venomous99]

have you tinkered w/ the engine recently? i recently had a mysterious coolant leak that i tracked down to residual coolant that pooled up in the engine block valley when the blower was removed. coolant doesnt evaporate real well so it was over several days that it finally poured all out. the drain on the valley is at the back of the motor. another thing to check is the heater core, which could also leak from the firewall.

check for leaks on the back fo the head as well

 

[srl135]

ill look more, but no havent messed with anything on the engine lately. I will check out the heater core and check the back of the head more..already glanced at it a bit but honestly...everything looked dry as a bone. And actually surprisingly clean!

 

[wjurls]

There is a tube that runs across the intake valley floor that goes from the back of the water pump to the heater core. This tube has two o-rings near the water pump connection, if they leak they will dribble the coolant out the rubber stopper on the back of the block. I can't post pictures from work but unless someone beats me to it I can post up a pic when I get home.

 

[srl135]

There is a tube that runs across the intake valley floor that goes from the back of the water pump to the heater core. This tube has two o-rings near the water pump connection, if they leak they will dribble the coolant out the rubber stopper on the back of the block. I can't post pictures from work but unless someone beats me to it I can post up a pic when I get home.

After trying to figure it out, that is what the consensus is. The shop is slammed right now and its only a small leak so we will get to it in the next couple of days. Blower has to come off right?

 

[wjurls]

Yes, blower and lower intake.
This is your bogey right here. There are 2 o-rings on the left here where the pipe attaches to a nipple for the water pump.

 

[srl135]

Lol, yea i know that is how to do it, but i realllllly hoped that perhaps someone had some trick up their sleeve so i didnt have to pull off the blower. Thanks for the pic and info though. I will let you know what ends up happening