[KPot]

This is a tangent of my post in the community center "New Monte Owner"

http://mymonte.com/d...619#entry300619

Good news (I hope), my oil is not murky chocolate colored. So I'm more optimistic that I don't have a gasket issue. With that being said, I poked around the engine some more and I have a lot of moisure on the passenger side of the engine. The coolant bottle is empty, but there is coolant visible almost to the neck of the radiator cap. The hose connecting the overflow is very damp. (the car has been setting for 4 days not started, I don't know the coolant level before that). What's a normal troubleshooting technique for coolant leakage? Has anyone experienced something similar that could point me in a direction?

(too dark for pictures, but I could grab some if it would be helpful)


Thank you.

[nitehawkjcb]

Look on the underside of the hood, above the serpentine belt. If it's wet, you probably have a leaky water pump/gasket.

[KPot]

nitehawkjcb, on 30 November 2010 - 03:19 AM, said:

Look on the underside of the hood, above the serpentine belt. If it's wet, you probably have a leaky water pump/gasket.

Nice tip, thanks. I don't remember the underside being damp, but I'll check it out today....

[KPot]

Okay, I checked under the hood and I'm more perplexed than before. Yes, there is a 'stripe' under the hood where SOMETHING has at one time sprayed off the belt. But it looks older, like it's been there a while. Unfortunately, despite the general good condition of the body and interior, cleanliness was not maintained. I remember cars as a kid having dirty engines, but my last few cars have maintained clean engines. This one has a lot of sand and build up so it's hard to discern current contaminents (lack of better word) from possible previous ones. The water pump seems the cleanest of alot of the parts, but there is a lot of build up of moisture/gunk on that side of the engine from below the intake manifold (is it 'UIM', upper intake manifold? the piece on top stamped w/ 3400 SFI?) to behind the pulleys. Poking around, though, there is also moisture build up on the opposite end of the engine starting at the same spot below the intake and above what appears to be where the coolant enters/exits the engine. There's too much wires and such (and it was dark w/ a cheap flash light) for me to get a good look under the intake to see if the source may be under there. But the moisture is more limited to the top there as it does not trail down to cover the transmission. (notes: I live in the south and it is perpetually damp here this time of the year and it's been very cool of late so evaporation of water may not take place)

I don't want to be fed information without making an attempt myself. I think my next step is to clean as much gunk as I can off the engine, refill any lost coolant and run the engine to temperature and attempt to visually find the leak. Anyone have some more tips, recommendations, or bad news for me.

[Manitcor]

Based on what you are describing I would say you have an LIM leak if the WP looks clean. If you have fluid coming out of the top end in the same general area on both the front and back (left and right sides) of the engine then it is likely a gasket.

A leaky LIM does not always result in Oil/Coolant mixing. In fact this tends to be the indication that things have already gone to far. Phantom coolant loss, wet areas in the engine compartment and/or a poor/studdering idle are generally your early indicators of an LIM problem.

[KPot]

Manitcor, on 01 December 2010 - 12:08 AM, said:

Based on what you are describing I would say you have an LIM leak if the WP looks clean. If you have fluid coming out of the top end in the same general area on both the front and back (left and right sides) of the engine then it is likely a gasket.

A leaky LIM does not always result in Oil/Coolant mixing. In fact this tends to be the indication that things have already gone to far. Phantom coolant loss, wet areas in the engine compartment and/or a poor/studdering idle are generally your early indicators of an LIM problem.

Cool, thanks for the prompt response. I think I've seen a few write ups on replacing those gaskets and I still need to order the Haynes manual. Between those two things, if thats what it is, then I should be well prepared when the time comes to fix it.

[KPot]

Update:

Well, the monte hasn't had lots of attention until this week. I started it up weekly and just kept an eye on things. Got the Haynes manual for it and I've been familiarizing myself with it all. So this week I got the oil changed (it was overfilled) and i believe the oil leak was the oil filter was loose. (prior to oil change) I tightened it up and cleaned off the oil pan and I haven't seen a drop since.

Today my neighbor and I was just messing around with his truck and we got looking at the Monte. We filled the coolant up (it was low) and took it for a drive around the parking lot. When I was backing into driveway, he noticed a leak. upon investigation, it appears the leak is coming (quite a lot too) from the thermostat housing. Someone else had commented that this piece was a frequent problem child. I priced it already for $16 from autozone, so I'm psyched that it may be all it needs.(well plus new thermostat and gasket)


I still want to do the LIM gaskets and such. Also, as you can tell from earlier posts, the whole engine needs a good cleaning. I'm hoping all the build up is from earlier issues that have been resolved. BUT, so far I have solutions for the two issues I know about. It's a project car, so it needs alot of work from rust to paint, but not leaking oil and antifreeze is a good start and I'll feel comfortable finally taking her out on a real drive (limited myself to parking lot so far) finally.

Lastly (I'll start another post if necessary) the engine has a lot of build up and 'varnishing' inside the valve cover. I've read up on sea foam and such, but you get mixed responses. Can someone point me to (or just give me direction) forums that I'm sure this has been discussed? (i search for sea foam or oil and i get the search error about too few letters)

Thanks!

[trewyn15]

I'm pretty sure the stripes on the hood is from oil after oil changes, i've seen it on many Monte's. Why it happens I have no idea, but it's no real big problem.

I would assume it's the intake gasket also, check out this little walk through, should help you out quite a bit.

http://d-tips.com/ge...ticle.aspx?id=2

[KPot]

Thanks. I'm getting a collection of how-to helps to go with my haynes manual on this procedure. The oil pump tip on this web site was one I had not seen yet. I really want to do this myself, but the more I read, I start to waffle and think maybe I should take it to somebody. I don't have a mechanic that I know/trust here, so I'm reluctant. all I do know for sure is that I need to create a checklist and ensure i have everything ready and walk through it 10 times before I actually try it.

Thanks again.

[05SSClone]

I just did the intake gaskets on my old mans 3400 impala. Not fun but very doable in an afternoon. Why GM decided to design the pushrods through the gasket is beyond me.

[KPot]

Well, finally a success story! I pulled off the throttle body and water outlet pipe. The thermostat gasket was chewed up! Bought a new thermostat and put it all back together. I read some forums to prepare for this (and my Haynes manual) and alot of people said it was an easy fix..... Well, not for me... I started at 730'ish this morning and finished the test drive at 3pm (included trip to part store for thermostat). NOW, I realize for me the difficulty was from lack of proper tools and experience, so I'm not saying everyone is wrong.... its a critic of myself and a learning experience (which is why I'm doing it in the first place).

The throttle body was coated in carbon like a toffey peanut (but black). it is now clean and shining! cleaned out around the egr (?) pipe behind the throttle too.

Big props to my neighbor, scott... career Marine about to retire... he was a big help with it all. He had the wrench I needed to get into those tight spaces for the lower/rear throttle and thermostat bolts! would have had to buy tools (not that that's a bad thing, just an unexpected expense) if he wasn't here.

Any how, after the test drive, she wasn't dripping anymore, so now I can move on to the next challenge.... engine coding with 'p0480'. Thats the next posting, but while she was hot, I hit the A/C and neither fan came on.. nor once it reached operating temperature. I'm hoping it's just the relays!


Later!

[KPot]

PS.... I'm still pretty sure it needs the intake gaskets... but for now that's down the road a little bit until I'm a little more equiped and I decide if I want to do any ugrades while I'm in there. Any recommendations?

[KPot]

PPS - As I (we) feared, no dripping from the thermostat now, but she still cries like a baby. Gonna have to do those intake gaskets. I was hoping she'd be drivable at least, but just idling up to temperature generates quite the puddle. I have a gut feeling (plus the visual evidence) that it's originating from the valley where the RTV goes. I think whoever chewed up the thermostat gasket probably put as much attention in the intake gaskets.