F some champagne tests. :p

I have one of those liquid block testers with a cylinder tube filled with solution that is supposed to pass air into it from the filler neck with a little hand pump. It's this one.

Thing is, at least in a 13B the actual filler neck fills up with coolant pretty rapidly when the car is started. The instructions say to remove some fluid from the neck but you don't have much room to do that before you'd be setting off the coolant level buzzer. And it would be impossible to do while the car is running.

My basic question is whether I can stick this thing anywhere else (ha), like the AST or the overflow tank and still get accurate readings. I'm assuming not, but I'm a bit ignorant of the specifics of how this test works.

Otherwise I guess I'll have to try to take some fluid out and go that way. Got a positive (err, negative, i.e., good) result when I tested it but then I started sucking up coolant after three pumps or so.

 

I'm not exactly sure of your descriptions, but whenever I've performed a coolant seal test, the tester is attached to the filler neck. It matters not if the buzzer goes off and/or you loose coolant. The car isn't going to overheat with a little coolant loss at idle / testing. I used a tester that would provide a color change if it detected exhaust gases.

 

Did you take enough out so you could test while the car was running? Sounds from the instructions like I can drain the neck, run the car for a bit, then shut off and test.

Also, stupid question, but... turkey baster, or what?