Need Help with Coolant Leak

[jgrakla]

Hello All, and thanks in advance for any help you can lend. I've got a problem with my Viper and the solution is not readily ovious to me even after reading several of the archived postings.

I have a 94 RT/10 and it has developed a coolant leak. I found coolant on the floor under the car and observed it dripping off the front facia. Also, if I start the car, coolant will start dripping pretty good. I have read several of the postings about the facia screws puncturing the overflow bottle. I have done the test of pouring water into the hose into the overflow bottle and no more leaked out. I removed the acces cover in the right front wheel well and have observed that the bottle is full. I don't mean normally full. I mean completely full. I can also see that the coolant has been leaking from that general vicinity but I cannot see the source of it.

I have checked all the visible lines and connections. The upper and lower radiator hoses are good. No leaks there. It is definitely concentrated in the front right behind the facia. I believe at this point I am going to have to remove the facia so that I can hopefully identify the source of the leak. But, before I do all that work I was hoping you could help me out.

At this point my current theory is that coolant is entering the overflow tank, but not leaving. That might explain why the overflow is full up. I assume the overflow bottle has both an inlet and an outlet. Maybe the outlet hose connector is clogged, or loose, or disconnected??? That might explain the leak.


I have several questions:

1. Pardon the pun, but does my theory above hold water?
2. If not, what other causes might there be?
3. If I do have to take the facia off, are there procedures already documented somewhere in the archives, or do you have any tips for me? Is it a difficult task to take the facia off?
4. If it turns out to be the radiator that is leaking, what is the current advice on whether to replace with a stock part or go after market?

Any help appreciated. Thanks,

Jason Graklanoff
'94 RT/10

 

[HP]

1st, what is the temp gauge read when you see coolant leaking?
If car is running hot, that is your answer, generally pressure of the spring in the reservoir cap will be overcome completely at around 250deg(red-mark) and flood overflow tank. If the temp gauge is below the max mark, then maybe your reservoir cap is defective(allowing coolant to leak and overflow tank). It's possible that hose connections between tanks is sealing enough to pass coolant to overflow tank, but not enough to **** it back into the reservoir when the car cools down(so check connections, or check for cracks in hose). You might pull off hose to overflow tank, and with your car at normal temp, watch to see if coolant is escaping. Normally some coolant is lost
to overflow tank when motor is hot, then vacuum ***** it back up
on cool-down(net effect- should be near constant level in overflow tank, after cooldown) Maybe someone else can comment further, these are just the
obvious places to start.

 

[Steve-Indy]

Try pressure test of your pressure bottle cap...commonly referred to as "radiator cap"...one of our Gen I's was behaving in a similar manner in regards to the drip, but all else was OK...turned out to be the cap was popping off at 20 lbs. instead of 16 lbs. which drove the fluid from the pressure bottle into the recovery bottle then to the fascia and out on the ground. Drove myself nuts til Sean Roe bailed me out with above advice...fix was a new cap for a couple of $$ (and of course, a Snap-On Radiator pressure tester SOON found it's way to my toolbox). Hope YOUR problem is as simple!!

 

[jgrakla]

Well the last time I drove it, temp was OK. It was a hot day. Temp was between 200 and 225 while I was driving it. That's about normal for it on a hot day and low speeds.

I can start it now, cold, and it will start dripping. That part is kind of blowing my mind because I would not think any coolant is moving through the radiator until the thermostat opens up. Perhaps my thermostat is stuck open as well???

 

[Ulysses]

I had a slow leak on the lower radiator hose. Hose looked fine, but coolant leaked out, ran along the bottom of the hose to the gooseneck, down the radiator, onto the radiator support and then onto the facia and would form a puddle on the floor. Leak was at the clamp on the radiator gooseneck side of the hose which is not readily visible unless you are underneath the car. The location of the leak and how it traveled made it look like the leak was coming from the facia.

 

[JonB]

Air in the motor is expanding when hot, and overflowing the facia bottle.

See BURPING in the illustrted tips section above.

You may ALSO have the common / inevitable 1992-1995 head gasket deterioration problem

 

[jgrakla]

Well I have taken off the facia and have determined that the overflow bottle is NOT cracked. However, now that I can run the motor and observe it, I can see that the leak is from the top of the overflow tank. There's a spout at the top meant to allow the coolant to escape if the bottle becomes too full.

Here's another thing....If I run the motor, it will continue to pump coolant out. If I run the motor with the cap off the surge tank (in the engine compartment) it will drain the surge tank, but the overflow bottle will not leak.

At this point I am confused as to why this is happening. I am going to go ahead and try the burping procedure to see if that helps, but even if that is successful, I am still confused as to how this problem came to be. In other words it was running fine one day and then the next this overflow condition is occurring.

Does anyone have any idea as to the true cause of the problem?

I'll let you know what happens with the burping procedure and if that help.

Thanks for everyone's input so far. I appreciate it greatly.

Jason

 

[jgrakla]

I ran through the "burping" procedure last night and it seems to have cured the problem. As part of the burping procedure I had to add about a half a hallon of coolant into the system, so presumably I displaced that same volume of air from the motor. I am going to heat cycle it a few more times and make sure the problem is gone.

As JobB suggested in an earlier post the air in the motor was probaby expanding (at a greater rate than coolant) and forcing more liquid into the overflow bottle.

Thanks again for everyone's help.

Jason