Please help diagnose, give me some direction here...

Finished the install on the short shifter...

Car warms up to operating temp
Drive 5 miles
Stop at Sears 20 minutes

Start the car and the coolant light comes on immediately!
Shut the car off immediately and pop the hood. NO coolant under the car. ALL hoses leak free. I pull the pressure release lever on the AST and hear coolant being sucked from the overfill tank. Car cools 5 mintues...I pop the filler cap...coolant level about 1 inch below the filler neck.

Start the car, turn the fans on, drive realllly slow home with my eye on the temp the whole way.

In the garage car cools with fans and external fan for 10 minutes. Open filler cap...NO COOLANT there...AST is full...overflow is full.

Help..?

Thanks!

 

As I understand it, when the internal o-ring goes out, you lose coolant by means of it getting burned off inside the engine. I take it you don't notice an odd color of smoke coming out the tail-pipe? I'd fill it back up and see if you continue to lose coolant - if so, thats about all I can think it would be :/

 

I was hoping no one would be thinking O-ring...crap...

No difference in smoke out the back....ugh....pray to the rotary Gods for me...

 

Your ast should be a pretty good indication of the coolant level in the system since it is a bit lower than the engine filler neck and it's plugged directly into the bottom of the radiator. My guess is that you either have too low of a pressure cap, or that you are leaking coolant above the water line of the filler neck (like at the throttle body). There is a small line that goes into the throttle body on top, and underside. I would make sure that the clamps are on tight, and that there is no evidence of coolant having been sprayed around the components.

Look around your filler neck, and at the bottom of the water pump for signs of leaks. Look at the ast nipples (if plast still), and the AST to catch tank hose. There are a couple of connectors inline which may leak, or may be popped off.

I don't think that you have a popped motor. The cooling systems on these cars are overly complex and very prone to coolant losses through crappy and worn out fittings.

Have fun!

 

I also wanted to note that if you are in habit of pulling the pressure cap lever then that could be your problem.

The cap is designed to relieve pressure caused by heated, and expand molecules. If you pull the lever then you will empty a portion of the coolant into the catch tank. Once the car cools, and the molecules return to room temp size, you will have noticeably different amount of volume in the cooling system. Wait for the system to cool before pulling the lever.

 

Sounds like a bad cap to me if this is true. Once the system reaches negative pressure the cap should let coolant back in to the system from the overfill tank. My point is that coolant should be sucked back in to the system without having to pull the lever. However given the time your car was off it might have been coolant being pushed in to the tank. If so read other posts.

 

Thanks! Checking those things out today...keep posting...all that is making me feel better