I’m losing (burning?)quite a bit of coolant every week or so. About a half gallon, but I never see it leaking out. Where is it going?
When your engine “burns” coolant you are in bad shape! It could indeed leak through the head gasket or the intake manifold gasket and into the engine. In which case you may see white smoke out of the tail pipe. It can also escape through one or more small leaks you may not have oveserved.
Your mechanic should perform a system pressure test to determine what is happening. Hopefully you don’t have a head gasket or intake manifold gasket problem.
Good luck!
Pull your oil cap and look at the underside of it. Also pull the dipstick. The oil should look like something between honey (reasonably clean) to dark maple syrup (dirty). If it looks like a chocolate milk shake then the coolant is going though a head or intake leak. Driving it like that will kill the engine quickly - so don’t.
If the oil looks good the pressure test is probably the best thing to do.
Could be a water pump seal. Do a pressure test and try a bit of additive sealant. Does the radiator cap show a drop in coolant or are you just adding to the resevoir? Loss in the radiator could point to a hose leak preventing the suction from pulling fluid from the resevoir. Replace the radiator cap. verify if the coolant is pulling back from the resevoir and keeping the system full. Do you drive this truck pulling a load or just to commute and how many miles. Basically we need to understand where the water is going. There could be a lot of places. eliminate them one by one.
Is this a GM vehicle?? If so…it could be the intake manifold.
Mike, Listed Under “TAGS”, Below The Question, It Says “Chevrolet Siverado 1500”.
CSA
maybe a radiator waterpump or head gasket. depending on how much the car is worth and how much the repair is might be a good idea to receive cash for junk cars http://JunkyardDirect.com
Thank you CSA…I missed that.