FE-FC Holden Discussion Forum

G'day guys....

Have a problem recently with my old FC... I seem to be losing a lot of water, but through nothing visible that I can see. It's starting to baffle me a bit.... as it's never happened before, just in the last couple of months.

There dosn't appear to be any leaks... but every week or so I'm finding I need to top up the radiator with a litre or more.... any ideas on where else I should be looking for the problem would be great....

thanks...
Hewart....

Hewat,
I assume that the engine is running fine and not missing which would indicate a cracked head or blown head gasket. Have a look at the appearance of the oil. Is it a creamy color which would suggest oil in the water.

The most probably cause I think would be that you are losing water out the overflow of the radiator. I have found two cause for this. Firstly a faulty cap. Secondly, when was the last time you back flushed the radiator or had it professionally cleaned. There is a fair chance there is a number of blocked cores which will cause you to lose coolant through the overflow.

Hope this may help


Rod

Hi Hewart
I've had the same problem. Mine turned out to be a porous inlet port runner in the head. Water would slowly seep thru the wall of the port runner and into cylinders 5 and 6,and cos the cooling system then couldn't build up pressure, it would over heat and blow water out the overflow on the radiator.
You can check for this by taking off the inlet manifold and looking inside the port runner in the head for traces of rust or water marks on the walls of it,or rust on valve head and stem.
Hopefully it won't be this serious.
Cheers
Tony

Hi Hewart
           One way of checking to see if there is water in the oil , is to put a couple of drops of oil from the dipstick on a flat ,clean, surface , smooth it out with your finger.   After rubbing a few times , if there is any water there , it will appear as little bubbles on top of the oil.
          A mechanic checked out my dads XM falcon like this 35 yrs ago and found that the head had cracked .

Hope this may be of help to you

Norm

Hi Hewart,
Besides any or all of the other suggestions, it may be a leak somewhere out of sight - heater core/connections etc. inside the car. Check if you have any dampness under the front mat. Also if the waterpump seal has hardened, sometimes they will only leak a little when cold & the engine's not running. Like when you leave it parked for a few days or more. Another hidden leaking spot is the welsh plug at the rear of the block. It's hard to see a leak from that baby even when it leaks a lot -  and it's a fairly time consuming repair.
If you take it along to a radiator repairer, they can pressure test the whole system cold, hot, running, not running etc and find the problem for you. You can then arrange a repair yourself or find someone who doesn't charge too much.
cheers,
Leigh

Les,

I had my radiator replaced about 2 months ago, by my mechanic Dennis Booth, who I can highly recommend.  I too was having water loss problems, and he determined the radiator was shot, and no flush was going to fix it.  (I'd had that done before).
FWIW his details are:

    O.N. Booth & Co.
    Frederick Street (opp Wormald)
    Ashfield
    ph 02 9798 8521

It cost me a couple of hundred bucks, but he did an excellent job (and gave me three different options for radiators, so I could decide how much I wanted to spend).  The car is now running very purty, and bear in mind that I have a 186 behind the grey-size radiator, plus a transmission cooler mounted in front of it, so it earns its money ;)

Hope that helps.  Tell Dennis you're a friend of mine and a member of the club.  He specialises in Holden, Chev and Pontiac vehicles.

cheers
RET

Hi Les,
I,ve had numerous problems like this and its always been a head gasket problem.Have you had the system pressure tested. I have a pressure tester if your going on Sunday we could test it there.I've always had the headgasket blow in a way that it blows the water out the exhaust in which case you can't see it. :-/
If I can help let me know. ::)
Cheers,
Graham

Thanks guys for your help...!!

I had done a head gasket in the past, on "that" trip to Melbourne in '98 for Holden's 50th... there was a fair amount of water coming from the exhast pipe at the time it happened, so to date that has been really the only check I've done so far to try and work out if it was the head gasket or not.... Still hoping it's not!! I will do those other suggestions over the weekend... Got to get under the car anyway to track a small oil leak that has also just appeared.. :(  Last time I flushed the radiator out was about 12 months ago, so will also have a go at that, and see how that goes....

As for going on Sunday Graham... still not sure if I'll make it. A couple of the kids have got stuff on (you know how it is);)... but I do have the day off and hope to make it.... we'll see...

Cheers..
Les...

Hi Hewart

Sadly, I too have experienced this problem and checked all the obvious places like welsh plugs, radiator caps and cores.  I eventually found that the front seal in the water pump had failed and was leaking from the small hole on the bottom side of the pump housing (right in behind the pulley where it is impossible to see).  The problem with this was that it only leaked when the coolant system was under load and as soon as you stopped the motor the slight trickle would disappear.  I finally found it by running the motor at revs and watching the area behind the pulley very closely with the help of a torch.  If you haven’t checked this already it may be worth a go.

Cheers

Charles

G'day again guys...

I've done a bit of checking of most of those things mentioned above... I have found the oil (now drained) is still black and not "creamy coloured"... and when rubbed into a clean smooth surface there's no bubbles and no wet feel.... BUT, I have got a fairly thick layer of a gunky goo under the rocker cover, all over the rockers and coating the inside surface.... and it feels very wet... Not sure what this means as the car still seems to go great, starts good and still hits the top speeds... She dosn't splutter and cough and there's no visible leak, so it must be inside....? ???

Is it still possible to keep driving her I wonder, and why would there only appear to be water at the top and not at the bottom.... I think I'll have to take her somewhere to get a pressure test done to see if it's the head gasket of water pump gasket....

Any more ideas...?
Cheers..
Hewart....