2.1 water leaking problem

[nindy]

Right .............

I'm hoping someone can help me pls !!!

At the moment nothing seems to be going right !

Just wondering if anyone could shed some light. I drove the van yesterday parked it in the garage.

And had a look under the van today and there's about an egg cup of anitfreeze on the floor. Does this mean my head hasket is about to go or gone ? The leak seems to be from the right hand rear side. I'm presuming where the one of the cylinder heads are.


I had a look at the header tank doesn't seem to be any gunk on it !

Lately it just seems to be one thing after another !! A money pit at the mo


Any help apreciated .....................

[billy739]

plenty of places it can be coming from , maybe a coolant pipe wants tightening/replacing

or water flange, or like you say the rubber head seal.

sometimes the head seal can leak like this for years before it becomes a serious issue other times it will turn into a bad leak very soon requiring work.

how old is the engine?

sometimes reconditioned engines have there heads skimmed , this reduces the thickness of the head but not the distance of the cylinders, thus there is less clamping effort on the gasket causing even new seals to leak after a short time!
if this is the case it can mean new heads.

[nindy]

Not sure how old the engine is, I have just bought the van. It didn't leak before its a 87' caravelle. With 225,000 miles on the clock. I'm going to run it tom night in the garage on axle stands and then see where the leak is coming from (the logical thing to do I guess !). Knowing my luck it will be the head gasket !!

BUT i'm gonna stick with it ..................

[kevtherev]

Not sure how old the engine is, I have just bought the van. It didn't leak before its a 87' caravelle. With 225,000 miles on the clock. I'm going to run it tom night in the garage on axle stands and then see where the leak is coming from (the logical thing to do I guess !). Knowing my luck it will be the head gasket !!

BUT i'm gonna stick with it ..................

where was the puddle? front, side, middle?

[Ian Hulley]

As Kev say's viewed from the back and above tell us where the puddle is.

Ian

[nindy]

Sorry I thought i had put the info in. Its the rear end on the offside about a cap full if that helps !

[Ian Hulley]

Sorry I thought i had put the info in. Its the rear end on the offside about a cap full if that helps !

Could just be a leaking flange from the r/h bank to the water pump ..... but could be the jacket seal too.

Ian.

[nindy]

I'm gonna put it on axle stand tom and run the engine to see if I can see the leak. I really hope its omething simpe.........

[toomanytoys]

Depending on what coolant is in there you may see a tell tale stain near the leak.. the main thing though you wont see the jacket gaskets as there are some pushrod protection plates under the engine.. also the waterboxer doesnt have a typical "head gasket" like most vehicles.. the rubber gasket you can see around the heads is only that.. its the water jacket seal.. the real seal that holds the compression in the cyls is seperate and sits on top of the cylinders..

Removing the head to change the seal is a potential can of worms.. if the engine is old, a head stud could be corroded and break, this means a full strip is needed.. DON NOT let anyone near the engine that is not fully conversed with them.. many of local garages have done a !quick head job" only to find they open the tin of worms and it ends up costing far more than a rebuilt engine...

Dont be tempted to use "rad seal" or just about any other "leak sealing product".. as far as I am aware the only one that doesnt seem to cause other issues is "K seal"....... (Aidan, thats what you have used isnt it??)

As said.. check any connections and the steel pipes on the engine.. there are many points where coolant can leak and lots of hoses too...

[nindy]

Great thanks, I have done loads of reading on this problem on this problem. Looks like I'm gonna have to do some more research. I'm really hoping its just a pipe.

I guess I will find out tom night when I run hey.

[Aidan]

yes I've used k seal on mine, has stopped 95% of the leaks, but the dodgy head stud still weeps when engine is hot, still I'm not touching it unless it gets worse as the coolant loss is minimal and system pressure is good
hopefully I'll have the spare engine prepped before I have to work on this one
I'm going to get a vacuum guage though for diagnostic purposes first though seems to be a very useful bit of kit which anyone working on these engines should have, thanks to Baxter for pointing that out, that's the benefit of being a proper mechanic rather than a technician

[nindy]

Well, I have had a look I took the baffler plate thing off covering the o\s cylinder head and guess what the leaks coming from the rubber seal on between the cylinder head and block. Game over I guess ..........

Great !

[Ian Hulley]

Looks like you just found out why they sold the van.

Not necessarily terminal, the 2.1 studs were stainless and so the nuts should undo without breaking.

Ian.

[nindy]

Does this mean the head studs should come out cleanly without snapping then ?

[ghost123uk]

Does this mean the head studs should come out cleanly without snapping then ?

Should be OK (fingers crossed for you)

KarlT did this job and covered it very well in this post here =
https://club8090.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.p ... g#p7363668" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It is a long thread but worth a look if you are thinking of embarking down that road