coolant leak

bryan young wrote:

rayb wrote: well the weather was good to day so jacked the car up and got the torch out carnt see any traces of coolant leak or stains from the inlet manifold area or block. theres no sign of any coolant stains anywhere its not even leaking now, so will have to investigate further. by the way my coolant is blue been in the car since i got it. i think my best chance is to get some coolant dye and a ultra voilet light .

Blue antifreeze is Ethylene Glycol, Pink is OAT (Organic Acid Technology) Have you looked for leaks around the heater pipes and the front radiator pipes and have you checked the underfloor pipes, these can weep around the welded brackets. the water pump shaft seal can leak too. are you absolutely sure that ther is no water in the oil?? check a cold engine to see if there are drops on the dip stick. how much do you need to top up each day :pinch:

Not necessarily on the colour Bryan.:nonod:
Confusingly, you can get red ethylene glycol and blue and green OAT. Nothing is simple.:lol:

the oil is fine and no oil in the coolant tank. i top up every month about 100 ml thats how much it uses bearing in mind i only use the car around 4 times a week and do average 50 - 70miles . will give it a good run later today then let it cool down .

rayb wrote: the oil is fine and no oil in the coolant tank. i top up every month about 100 ml thats how much it uses bearing in mind i only use the car around 4 times a week and do average 50 - 70miles . will give it a good run later today then let it cool down .

100ml of top up each month seems a very small amount of fluid loss,:pinch: throughly check the underfloor pipes and the heater connections. Also try replacing the coolant tank cap too, only cost £4. i reckon that amount of loss is drying off somewhere (just like David's inlet manifold) and not dripping off. :shrug:

well had the car up on stands to day, i was undersealing the subframe, there hasnt been any leaks for over a week now. could not find any stains or coolant droplets anywhere ,but i did notice that my slave cylinder seal had come adrift from the cylinder it hasnt leaked any clutch fluid yet so will try and pop it back on tomorow

Clutch and Coolant! It sounds a bit like my weekend. I replaced the coolant pipes with stainless. At the price I was very surprised to see that they had an MG Rover label and were made in England. Great value for 70 quid! They went on relatively easily, I only sheared off one belly pan bolt.
I also replaced the clutch hard line. The worst part of that job was undoing the badly rusted union to the flex hose at the rear. The pipe had quite a bit of corrosion where it joined the union but it didn't look quite as nasty after spraying with penetrating oil. I almost left it for another day but decided to pop it out of it's retaining clip for a better look. I used a small screwdriver to lever it out and the pipe fractured with fluid pouring out. Good thing I checked!
The car also got a set of poly bushings and engine and gearbox oil change as well as a couple of new brake pipes.
I'm looking forward to getting back to work for a rest!

Cheers,
Rich

Rich in Vancouver wrote: Clutch and Coolant! It sounds a bit like my weekend. I replaced the coolant pipes with stainless. At the price I was very surprised to see that they had an MG Rover label and were made in England. Great value for 70 quid! They went on relatively easily, I only sheared off one belly pan bolt.
I also replaced the clutch hard line. The worst part of that job was undoing the badly rusted union to the flex hose at the rear. The pipe had quite a bit of corrosion where it joined the union but it didn't look quite as nasty after spraying with penetrating oil. I almost left it for another day but decided to pop it out of it's retaining clip for a better look. I used a small screwdriver to lever it out and the pipe fractured with fluid pouring out. Good thing I checked!
The car also got a set of poly bushings and engine and gearbox oil change as well as a couple of new brake pipes.
I'm looking forward to getting back to work for a rest!

Cheers,
Rich

That was a good price for the S/S underfloor pipes. The MGF Centre were selling them at the Stoneleigh show for £65 and they wer going like hot cakes. You have been working hard on the car, didnt take you long to fit the poly bushes, obviously everything came apart easialy. have you got a date yet for your national test???

Did you see David's recent post about fitting an automatic air bleeder (from a domestic central heating system) to his radiator in leiu of the Mike Satur one ~ regards Bryan