Burning Coolant
 

I took the intake off my TII to change seals on the LIM because I'm burning water. I got new ones from mazdatrix, as well as O-rings. So I put them in, started the car and filled it with water while it was running. Now its still burning water. I have two questions I guess.

First Question: Where else could I be burning coolant from? I've even tried blocking off the water running into the intake. Is it possible to block off the two water jackets leading into the intake.

Second question: What is the water running into the intake for? I could only think that it helps warm it up in cold weather?

PS: I searched "burning water" and never found a single thing like this in the threads. Am I missing some certain way to use the search function?

quite possibly the coolant seals in the block, in which case you'd have to rebuild to fix it. are you sure you aren't just leaking coolant somewhere and it's burning externally? get some coolant dye and try it out, I did that this week and it really sped up the search for my leak, now it's fixed and I've moved to other issues.

If he's getting coolant into his intake, I doubt its his housing coolant seals; though, weirder things have happened.

Does your car have sub-zero assist? A small reservoir of coolant near your charcoal canister/cruise control/wiper motor area. It injects coolant into your intake during startup... but stops when the engines oil becomes warmer... It MIGHT be that... I can't think of any other coolant passages that directly contact the intake system... so perhaps you installed the o-rings wrong. :)

sounds like someone needs to compression test their coolant system.

Take it to a shop and have them do a system pressure test.

Okay, I've heard of this before, but where do you take it? A basic mechanic or someplace special?

My bro-in-law recommended doing the same thing.

Oh, and no way the o-rings are wrong! The block it grooved to fit them. Ontop of that I also added some liquid gasket to be sure. This is the second time I've taken the LIM off to diagnose the problem, so I was incredibly careful to do it right. Does anyone know what those water troughs do? It looks to me that it just runs throught the LIM and back into the block. Of course, my car was completely hacked together when I got it so I've no idea what might be missing.

man i hate coolant issue's, good luck man.

:AA:

Where can I get a pressure test done? And, how does the die work? I put it in and how do I know where its leaking?

Its a UV sensitive light that they shine a blacklight on.. then they can see where its coming out.

Any radiator shop can do a pressure test.

or you can go to your local autoparts store and buy the tester. It goes in place of your radiator cap and has a pump so you can add pressure to the system. If the leak is in external then the car will pee.

I know its not external so how much help will a dye test be? Its burning water, large amounts of steam coming out the exhaust. I'm thinking that an intake compression test is in order.

It would be absolutely no help. You are absolutely right.

To clarify things, you pulled your upper intake and then after that the engine began burning coolant?

If that's the case, then the fault is with the coolant o-rings that seal the intake.

Or was the engine burning coolant before you removed the intake?

If that's the case, then it's probably internal to the engine. One of the o-rings has developed a leak, or the iron has cracked. This is easy to prove.

With the car STONE COLD, remove the rad cap and then start the car. Walk over to the open fill hole. Look inside. Do you see a steady stream of bubbles coming from somewhere in the engine? Rev it with the throttle body. Do the bubbles increase or does coolant gush out of the hole? If the answer is yes, you have a failed coolant o-ring. :(

Wait, yes to which, 'bubbles increase' or 'coolant gush'? Or do you mean 'yes' to either?

Yes to either is a problem. It's normal for the coolant level to rise up a bit when the engine is revved, but it should not bubble violently and gush out...