Coolant smell under the hood

[rollguy]

I sold the Disco today (6,16,2009). The coolant leak seems to be fixed by the Bars liquid copper. I have not smelled the coolant smell at all after the treatment. Either way, the new owner is very happy with the truck.

 

[Maddie]

Must be lucky. My 95 will use about half the resevoir a day. If I leave it alone it goes down no further than this. Valley pan next to firewall is the obvious culprit for me. Temp never goes up. Had it flushed two years ago. Gonna get it flushed this fall. Gonna put a new resevoir in as it sounds like the black ones blow up. Gonna replace the hoses as well as I have them and thermostat in stock. Pressure test hopefully will tell all. Bars leak is the best my dad use to sell it. Hope it works for you. Personally I don't wish to use it. Might pull heads to get rid of what I think is lifter racket.

 

[Disco Mike]

None of you people know me yet so take this on trust, you never, ever put any time of stop leak in our alloy engine. May give you a shirt term fix then after gumming up the system you can/will toast the engine.
So no mater what they say, it is your truck, be responsible and pressure test the coolant system, find and fix the leak cause the cheap fix will get you every time.

 

[Maddie]

Agree with mike, joey and anyone else that says you shoulnt use any sort of leak fix material. Just cause dad sold it doesn't make it right as he sold it as a temp fix to over the road truckers that needed a quick fix in a pinch. As noted on my previous reply I had no intentions of using it.

 

[tempestv8]

Unfortunately the Rover V8 head gasket is fairly thin in it's cross section at the rear of the engine block. I've seen a number of motors where there's dried up ooze of coolant weeping between the head and block at the rear of the motor. Obviously this is hard to see when the engine is in the engine bay. You might need to use a mirror to check for this.

The other place where a DII V8 would leak coolant is the throttle body pre heater. Check the two hoses - if there's crud under the throttle body connections, that's another source of coolant leaks.

The other common place is the sides along the radiator - pop off the plastic radiator shroud and shine a torch down the inner sides of the radiator. Spray some water from a misting pump and if you start to see a tell tale sign of orange, you've got a radiator that is leaking....

Regardless of where the leak is coming from, or how quickly/slowly your coolant bottle is emptying, get it fixed ASAP otherwise you'll end up with much more expensive repairs (head gaskets, slipped liners, etc). The old adage, a stitch in time saves nine is so appropriate for these motors!

 

[ben.jester]

Check the expansion tank. I've had the same problem. The tank leaks through the welded joint between upper and lower body spraying coolant into the engine bay. I only found mine leaking when it let go big time.

 

[Disco Mike]

Adding stop leak to your engine will rank among the stupidest things you can do just to save a buck.
Fix it right or you will be looking for a new engine shortly.

 

[Disco Mike]

Do yourself a favor and make the necessary repairs instead of putting a bandade on it, that engine is pretty expensive to replace if this fails.

 

[rollguy]

Check the expansion tank. I've had the same problem. The tank leaks through the welded joint between upper and lower body spraying coolant into the engine bay. I only found mine leaking when it let go big time.

From previous post:
I sold the Disco today (6,16,2009). The coolant leak seems to be fixed by the Bars liquid copper. I have not smelled the coolant smell at all after the treatment. Either way, the new owner is very happy with the truck.