I am stumped ---- Coolant Leak

yakers · **Posted:** Sun Aug 14, 2011 12:35 am

Check for dye in the oil. Also could do an oil analysis and see if there is coolant that way. I have it in mine and is in the shop right now, awaiting determination if it is a head gasket or worse.

I would actually try something like the K seal to get back from a desert run but don't think that is a long term solution if it would work at all.

racertracer · **Posted:** Sun Aug 14, 2011 7:40 am

Does K-Seal work?

turbobike · **Posted:** Sun Aug 14, 2011 8:03 am

i had a mystery slow coolant leak which I couldn't find. turned out to be the 2 hoses on the EGR. As the leak got more frequent, it showed up on the starter housing where it was dripping. Once I had a "visible" it was easy to locate the source.

robo19381910 · **Joined:** Wed Jan 12, 2011 6:16 pm **Posts:** 9

DOC4444 wrote:

Start reading about K-Seal. It worked wonders with our Kubota diesel tractor.

DOC

Blue Devil stop leak has fixed many of small leaks. (O' Riley s)Finds the fluid loss and chemically dries as a powder. Expensive but may be worth a try.

DOC4444 · **Posted:** Sun Aug 14, 2011 10:20 am

Thanks to TurboBike for weighing in. He was who I was referring to earlier in this thread before it was clear to me that Racer is blowing coolant out the overflow tube with a known to be good pressure cap.

I replaced the leaking water pump on our Kubota BX-22 a couple years ago (3 cyl diesel). It was a horrible two-day job. Had barely a hundred more hours on it this spring when the new one suddenly started spewing coolant at the rate of a pint in less than five minutes. AND, there was no apparent reason for it. Belt was properly adjusted, no overheating, etc. Suicidal depression is a mild label for how I felt about replacing the pump again, so soon. Some research indicated that Kubotas tend to go through water pumps pretty quickly. AND, no rebuilt ones are available. The local dealer cherges about $900 to $1100 for the complete job. The cheapest you can get the pump for is from an on-line Kubota dealer for about $220. (Local dealer gets $320 for the part.) AND, even if I could get myself to do it again with the prospect of repeating every two years, I had literally NO time.

Well, it turns out that there is an extremely popular all aluminum 4-cyl 1.8 litre motor made by Rover in the UK called the"K Series". They have never been able to come up with a way to keep headgaskets to last very long in them. To make a long story short, "K-Seal" is the "permanent" fix.

I have NEVER previously used ANY coolant sealer EVER in ANYTHING in 40 years due to the everyone always saying they plug up the small cooling passages in the head and block and are difficult to remove when you get around to a "proper" repair.

Well, one bottle of K-seal directly in the radiator (NOT the recovery bottle) and the shaft seal leak COMPLETELY stopped in about 20 minutes.

I have not added ONE drop of coolant in almost 5 full months (100+ hours of use) AND it runs 20% COOLER than ever before. (We really USE this tractor running full power for hours in 90 degree heat.)

So, if Racer has done all the external checks and is left with maybe it's a cracked head, block or a bad headgasket, if it were me, I would try K-Seal next.

DOC

racertracer · **Posted:** Sun Aug 14, 2011 10:39 am

I took the Jeep out this morning for a long drive and within an hour I had lost 2 or so cups of coolant, more than previously seen.

I lifted her up and removed the skid plate so that I could check below and above the engine compartment with a UV light and I found no coolant leaks anywhere, it is bone dry.

I will try the K-Seal permanent coolant leak repair today because I have nothing to lose, a new head is not in my budget right now and if this fix will hold me over for a month or so then it did its job.

I will be gathering info on fixing a blown head gasket and planning for a major repair.

I will update you all on how well the K-Seal performs if at all.

DOC4444 · **Posted:** Sun Aug 14, 2011 11:27 am

Well, I certainly hopes it works for you. The question is whether you can get away with putting it in the header tank. I know it will be more trouble to drain the tank and lines, but you will know much sooner if it is going to work for you. I would get a couple of the small bottles or one big one (start with half of the big one, if you do). You will probably need at least three full heating and cooling cycles to find out if it works, if you put it directly in the radiator. Putting it in the header tank, it will take signifcantly longer.

Where people run into trouble putting K-Seal into the recovery bottle is that if you have a serious leak, the system just sucks in air as it cools down and does not pull the coolant with the sealer in it.

Keep us posted with the steps as you go through them.

DOC

papaindigo · **Posted:** Sun Aug 14, 2011 12:13 pm

No need to put it in the tank on the firewall. Try this. On a cold engine remove the radiator cap on that tank; open the drain plug on the bottom passenger side of the radiator (see viewtopic.php?f=98&t=56398 for a simple way) and place a bucket under that area; remove the plug on the top passenger side of the radiator by turning it to 4 o'clock and pulling up; drain enough coolant from the radiator (Note: coolant in the firewall tank will drain before the radiator starts to drain) to allow room to add the K-seal to the radiator thru where you removed the top plug; close the bottom drain; add the K-seal; with the top plug still open add the coolant from the bucket to the firewall tank until coolant reaches the top of the top radiator plug hole; reinstall the top radiator plug (insert in the 4 o'clock orientation, push down, twist to close); finish adding the coolant in the bucket to the firewall tank for a slight overfill.

Drive until reaching operating temp. This will purge any air in the system out thru the firewall tank and directly circulate the K-seal thru the radiator and cooling system. Otherwise follow K-seal instructions.

Hope the K-seal helps. I know the above method to add it will work but whether or not the seal will work is something with which I have no experience.

racertracer · **Posted:** Sun Aug 14, 2011 2:24 pm

Siphoned out all the coolant in the header bottle and added the K-seal solution to the radiator. I let it run for about 20 minutes and took a drive going slow... and surprising it didn't leak.

But when the turbo spooled it didn't hold up, the high pressure still blew the coolant out of the relief hole.

Bummed out here cause she runs great.

DOC4444 · **Posted:** Sun Aug 14, 2011 4:10 pm

Patience my friend. If I understand what you did correctly, it will take at least 5-6 FULL heating/cooling cycles to get it distributed fully throughout the system. The last posted before had detailed instructions to speed things up.

You have not completed one cycle yet. If hou put inone small bottle, I would go through at least 6 full cycles, then add another bottle before giving up.

DOC

racertracer · **Posted:** Sun Aug 14, 2011 4:11 pm

DOC4444 wrote:

You will probably need at least three full heating and cooling cycles to find out if it works

I am not sure I gave the solution a long enough time to seal before taking her out for a test run, so I intent to call the manufacturer tomorrow for more details. I'll let you know more as I go.

DOC4444 wrote:

Patience my friend. If I understand what you did correctly, it will take at least 5-6 FULL heating/cooling cycles to get it distributed fully throughout the system. The last posted before had detailed instructions to speed things up.

You have not completed one cycle yet. If hou put inone small bottle, I would go through at least 6 full cycles, then add another bottle before giving up.

DOC

OK thanks.... I'll follow the directions.

racertracer · **Posted:** Sun Aug 14, 2011 6:05 pm

I have noticed that the temperature guage does not move past the half way mark when the header bottle overflows into the reservoir no matter how hot the coolant gets the indicator remains constant. Is this correct? i would imagine the temperature increases when hot gases are introduced in the system and the indicator gauge should move up.

DOC4444 · **Posted:** Sun Aug 14, 2011 7:34 pm

I would think not because the volume of coolant overwhelms the volume of gas. The small amount of high heat from the gas is easily dissipated in the volume of coolant. I would not expect to see a significant coolant temp increase

BTW, give it at least 6 hours inbetween heat cycles. Also, I just realized that adding the K-Seal essentially in the header tank as you did may result in most of it being pushed out the overflow tube because that is how you are losing your coolant. If you are not now collecting all of the coolant that comes out, you better start so you can keep returning the K-Seal that is lost to the system.

Don't be afraid to add a second small bottle in a couple days or the other half of a large bottle.

DOC

racertracer · **Posted:** Mon Aug 15, 2011 9:10 am

Good sign this morning, no leaks.

Drove it easy didn't go past 40 miles an hour.

Haven't added the second bottle of K-Seal yet but will do later. Keep you updated.

DOC4444 · **Posted:** Mon Aug 15, 2011 11:08 am

Don't add more K-Seal yet if you have not lost any out the overflow. Give it another couple cycles before adding more. (If you recover everything that goes out the overflow and return it to the system, you should not need more.) I do not know if there is some sort "limit" as to how much can be used.

DOC

racertracer · **Posted:** Mon Aug 15, 2011 8:03 pm

K-seal has not cured the problem... the leak is back with a vengence.

The combustion test kit arrived today and it proved that combustion gases were present in the coolant.

Head gasket problem, cracked head, warped head, anything else it could be?

DOC4444 · **Posted:** Tue Aug 16, 2011 8:06 am

Block could be cracked, but that is extremely unlikely. I would keep heat cycling it and adding some K-Seal if you are not able to recover all the lost coolant and return it to the system.

DOC

onthehunt · **Posted:** Tue Aug 16, 2011 12:12 pm

EGR valve is also a possibility.

racertracer · **Posted:** Tue Aug 16, 2011 12:18 pm

You mean the EGR valve could allow cumbustion gases to pass into the coolant?

onthehunt · **Posted:** Tue Aug 16, 2011 12:28 pm

Not likely but possible with coolant used to cool egr valve. Most of the time when we get a bad uoa with coolant in the oil it is the egr valve leaking. I would say 99% of the time.

I am stumped ---- Coolant Leak

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