82transam

iTrader: (18)

ok, my car (83 12a) has been going through coolant for several months now, not a whole lot, but enough to make me wonder. I was topping it up the other night and decided to poke around and see what I could see (all previous attempts to spot the leak resulted in nothing) and damn, theres a bunch of coolant on the cross member, passenger side. Now I checked the lower rad hose and its dry, and the thermostat housing seems dry as well. My gut feeling would say its the water pump gasket, but I'm not sure. What do you guys think?

LongDuck

Could be the water pump gasket, but more than likely, the gasket is fine and it's just leaking through the 'weep hole' that's located on the front shaft of the WP (waterpump). This weep hole is designed to leak coolant to signal to you that the water has worked it's way past the front bearing through wear, and that you'll need to replace the whole WP housing and impeller very soon. Better to lose a little coolant and notice it than lose all cooling capacity at once (seized WP bearing).

There is also the plastic radiator drain that's located in front of the passenger side cross member, that when it leaks, could be spraying in the airflow and look like it's coming from the front cover.

Have a good look under your WP and see if it's wet there, that may help you locate the problem. Good luck,

Rotofire

Longduck, your posts are always so full of knowledge


ups to biggy

82transam

iTrader: (18)

hmm, I just noticed I spelled collant wrong, stupid me. Anyway, I got a closer look before and it seems dry around the pump, all sides. As for the drain plug, 83 and before radiators don't have a drain plug, so thats out.
I won't rule the pump out just yet, but another theory of mine is that the gasket between teh engine and that cast piece the pump actually mounts to might be leaking. I don't know what to call the part I'm referring to, but its got teh outlet for the lower rad hose and the pump mounts to it. The location of the coolant seems to line up with that. Unfortunatly I'm running full emissions gear so the air pump and a few other things blocks my view in there. I'll have to wait till the weekend to get under the car and see what I can see.
Thanks for the reply longduck, any other theorys are greatly appreciated.

wwilliam54

check the thermoshat gasket

LongDuck

You actually have 2 gaskets to worry about on the WP. They are the housing gasket that's usually replaced with a standard WP replacement, which looks like this:


And then you have the WP housing to front-cover gasket, which looks like this:


These 2 parts will probably fix your leak, if it is in fact due to a gasket that has degraded over time, or has developed a leak somewhere. If I were you, I'd go ahead and order the WP at the same time - you're going to have to have it all off to get to the gaskets, anyway, and might as well replace at about $50 (Mazdatrix). HTH,

Edit: Hey, anybody know why my signature lines doesn't come up automatically like it used to??? I have to keep 'editing' the post and then checking the "Show Signature" box... Hmmm.

82transam

iTrader: (18)

ok thanks alot longduck. Its funny you mention mazdatrix cause I looked there last night and thats when it dawned on me that the piece the water pump mounts to, I was referring to in my other post, is the water pump housing. I then looked at my spare engine (partially taken apart) and that confirmed it for me. I'll go ahead and order those parts from mazdatrix right away, last thing I need is my daily driver to crap out on me. Thanks again for you help. As for your sig, I'm not sure, I don't use one.

82transam

iTrader: (18)

Well, I poked around before, flashlight in hand, and couldnt really tell anything. Started teh car up and looked again, coolant was dripping off the bottom of the engine, right by the exhaust header. It was hard to tell where exactly it was running from however because the air pump and some other **** is in the way. Also there is a bit of coolant sitting on top of the engine by the base of the carb. Now, it still is possible that the water pump housing's gasket is to blame, but its also possible the o rings on teh intake manifold are leaking. Since I've ordered the pump and gaskets already I guess I'll change them, but what do you guys think about the intake o rings?

Atkins Mama

Ok guys here's one to think about, the intake gasket and O rings.. the O rings go bad over time due to heat, and exposure to the coolant as it makes them swell.. When replacing the Waterpump gaskets don't forget the 2 little washers at the area where the water pump meets the engine.. this is a spacer that keeps everything in line on the waterpump...
BTW the intake gasket and o rings are about 10-12 dollars..

82transam

iTrader: (18)

Yea, I think i'll go ahead and order the intake gasket and o rings, while I have that all apart is there anything else I should attend to? I'll have to squeeze all this work into my one week spring break, but I wanna do as much as possible. I replaced the thermostat a year ago when I swapped oil coolers and replaced all my hoses, think I should put a new one in just for the hell of it?