Help! Coolant Leak!!

[Torinate]

Crap!!

Got the car out of storage (home garage) and went for a 20 minute drive. Easy on it - no wide open pulls just put put. Car drove great. Went into boost - maybe 3 pounds nothing really. Started to smell coolant so went back home. Pulled the lower panels off and moved the coolant overflow bottle as the hoses were dry so wanted a better look.

In the engine valley under the supercharger there’s puddles of coolant.

Ideas? This happen to anyone or anyone have ideas what it could be?

Next step I’m assuming is pulling the blower to have a look.

16 with 19,000 miles. Edelbrock supercharger. Car is not beat on. More of a “cruiser”.

Not looking forward to this!!

Thanks for your help in advance!

Any ideas or ways to diagnose before I pull the blower?

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[K4fxd]

Take it to a Midas or similar and have them pressure test it. They give free estimates so they will tell you what has failed.

 

[Torinate]

So I took off the covers from the blower (side covers that say “supercharged”” and moved the hoses around to see better. Well, moving the left side I hear a hiss sound! I’m pretty sure that’s it! It’s the hose that connect to the tube mounted on the head.
At least I can try that before pulling it apart.

thanks K4fxd. Something like that would have escaped me. I would have just five in lol.
I’m praying this is it.
Jeez. Sitting here typing this I just a different sound now. Like a squawk from the drivers side. Grr.

 

[K4fxd]

Coolant or oil leaks unless it is obvious I take to a shop with a free estimate policy. Then I dive in

 

[olaosunt]

Do you have the MMR coolant cross over /head cooling mod ?

 

[Torinate]

Do you have the MMR coolant cross over /head cooling mod ?

No. Don’t have either. I read about them but I think it would be too difficult to do with the motor in the car. It appears that the hose wasn’t on the white coupler as tight as it should have been. Somehow came loose. That’s my guess right now. I’ve put it back on again. I’m hopeful. Don’t want to start the car tonight and tick off the neighbours lol so I’ll try it tomorrow and see what happens. Maybe I can get a pressure tester if it’s still leaking and see if I can narrow it down before yanking the blower if I have to.
My fear was / is a cracked block in the valley but seeing and hearing the hose connection has me thinking that’s it.
Do the white plastic couplers that the hose clips into break or weaken over time? There’s about 5000 miles since the install and this is the first sign of anything like this. Maybe disconnected somehow or loosened over the winter.
I’ll update tomorrow!
Wish me luck!

 

[Torinate]

Update.

Unable to rent or borrow a pressure tester. As we’ve gone into a stay at home order for COVID, nobody is loaning tools. I was able to run the car for some time and got temps up to normal and the fam kicking on. That hose is HOT. Great news though! No leaks! So now to somehow get some coolant to top it up. Stores are closed...
Plan is to let it cool down and then try again to see if I can provoke a leak.
If all good, will button it back up. Yay!
Thanks for the help!!

 

[StangTime]

Update.

Unable to rent or borrow a pressure tester. As we’ve gone into a stay at home order for COVID, nobody is loaning tools. I was able to run the car for some time and got temps up to normal and the fam kicking on. That hose is HOT. Great news though! No leaks! So now to somehow get some coolant to top it up. Stores are closed...
Plan is to let it cool down and then try again to see if I can provoke a leak.
If all good, will button it back up. Yay!
Thanks for the help!!

Stores may be closed but you can pay online and do curb-side pickup. Canadian Tire is probably your best bet.

 

[Torinate]

Update: so go it all buttoned back up and sopped up all the coolant in the valley and warmed it up idling. Looked good. No coolant leaking. Went for a drive and got into boost a few times but nothing long or high. Had a look again and a small lordly bit of coolant just in one spot in the valley. Soaked it up then. I think it was just remnants that I couldn’t get to and moved back a little when accelerating. Drove for about an hour and nothing came back. I drove a little harder after that to see if I could provoke it leak but all stayed dry!! So I think that’s it. I’m hoping I got all the air out the system. Took about 1 liter of coolant to refill.
I called my Ford dealer about the hose. Good thing it’s not fubar! There are NO hoses in North America. None! No aftermarket ones either. They told me there’s a shortage of lots of different parts... I understand that’s why there’s some production delays as well.
So for now, I’m going to drive it and keep an eye on it to make sure nothing crops up.
Thanks again for support!

 

[carguy231]

The only leak on my Edelbrock setup is the cap on the surge tank. Just got an aluminum replacement, but have to paint it, etc. before the install.

 

[carguy231]

Do you have the MMR coolant cross over /head cooling mod ?

What is this? First I've heard of it.

 

[Torinate]

This allows coolant to run from one head to the other at the back of the engine. Supposed to lower head head temps at cylinder 7-8 as normally coolant dead heads there. Pop out the frost plugs on the back of the heads and the MMR kit has 2 housings and a hose to run between them. Hard to get quantifiable test results but the theory is good. I would fine it much to difficult to install with the engine in. Your mileage may vary.

My leak was engine coolant - not intercooler / supercharger coolant.

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