All It Takes Is Patience & A Plan

I continue to see people throw away hundreds of dollars trying to fix problems.Most of us don't have the money to throw away and the ones that do have the money don't want to throw it away needlessly.Wasted time is money thrown away also.

I read about a bunch of coolant leak problems on this website.The proper plan of attack should be to apply the proper amount of pressure to the cooling system to make it leak where you can pinpoint it.

First off go ahead & spend the forty dollars for a cooling system tester such as the Stant model I have attached in the thumbnail photo.Hook it up and pump it to three lbs. above the radiator cap rating.Let it sit and watch the gauge needle.

If there are no visible leaks but the gauge needle is leaking down its entirely possible you have a leaking head gasket or a cracked head.In that case you want to pull all of the sparkplugs and see if you have water leaking into any of the cylinders.

Now a new scenario.Lets say that you have run the pressure test and found no visible leaks and the gauge needle is staying put,but for what ever reason you still think you have a leaking head gasket.That is entirely possible because you have been testing with low pressure air simply because the radiator can't handle high pressure and stay together.

The next action on the job plan will be to bring the piston to top dead center on the firing stroke on the cylinder that you want to test.Now screw an adaptor into that spark plug hole.

The engine will have to be locked in place where it cannot move.Either at the flywheel or at the front pulley bolt.Hook up your air line and apply up to 140 psi to the cylinder.Make sure the radiator cap is off and look for bubbles.

Its not that hard to pinpoint the problem if you have patience and a plan of attack.