LBZ: LBZ coolant leak

[Molly]

I've been searching around and I haven't found anyone with this exact issue so I made a thread.

Three weeks ago I was romping on it in my hot tune, when I pulled off the road I smelt coolant burning (sweet smell). I opened the hood and looked for any obvious issues as I was in a rush and didn't notice anything. Drove home and I smelled it when I got home too, looked around again and nothing. No steam out of the exhaust. Checked the oil and just smelled like motor oil, upper rad hose is soft so I thought I would back it down and just keep an eye on it.

It's lost a small amount of coolant over the past weeks.. Not a lot and I haven't got a coolant light or anything. Yesterday I was washing my truck and I noticed my down pipe was covered in a white chalky substance. I have been crawling around back there and I can't find anything wet, the rad hose is still soft and there still isn't any coolant in the oil, no soot in the tank, and it still isn't steaming.

When we did the egr delete we put a new hose for where the cooler coolant hose was and I'm wondering if under pressure if that is spitting coolant? I'm not sure if that's even possible. It's been raining here for 40 days and 40 nights so that has been hampering my search but I thought someone might have an idea.

And I've been driving it like normal too.


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[Woodster]

I had a similar issue with my LBZ. Mine was leaking from the heater hose that goes through the cab of the truck. Tightened the crimp and I was good to go.
What was happening is the coolant would drop down onto my wrapped downpipe. (Looks identical to yours) The wrap would somewhat soak up the coolant and as soon as my engine was up to temp it would start to cook the coolant resulting in my coolant smell. Also, I had the same chalky white residue caused by cooking dexcool on my downpipe.

Hope this helps.

 

[Dozerboy]

I just had to replace the line that has a 90* bend in that in front of the turbo. Its the coolant supply to the turbo, but it was running down the back of the engine. Had it been a smaller leak it would of been pretty damn hard to find.

Quit looking for leaks and go borrow a pressure test kit from one of the auto parts stores its going to save you a lot of time.

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[IOWA LLY]

You can also easily pressurize the coolant system on the classic body style truck by using shop air and a rubber tipped blow gun. Just pull the hose of the fitting by the cap. Carefully and just a little at a time blow air in the tank. The cap will let it back out at you if you get to much. I usually just add enough pressure to make the upper radiator hose firm. Usually that will expose any external leak you have.

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[Molly]

Thanks for the replies. Good to see no one is suggesting head gaskets lol I don't have enough funds for my mild motor build yet. I haven't had time to check around but tomorrow at lunch I'll check that fitting/ inspect that hose with the bend. Being that a side from loosing a small amount of coolant, I'll probably wait until the weekend to pressure check the system because I'm going to be busy this work week.

Again I really appreciate the suggestions, thanks.

 

[TheBac]

Could be the gasket failed on that small rectangular plate on the pass side of the rear cover above the starter, too. That could drip coolant onto the exhaust, and is in a spot where the smell would be strong in the cab.

Just a thought....