Thirsty engine

[Funks4X]

Thirsty engine, drinking coolant

My 89 V6 is drinking coolant at about 1 gallon a day now. started very slowly about 2 months ago after I bought it, one day it was out of coolant so added some, a week later started getting low again etc... until now about a gallon a day on a 15 mile trip. Hey 15 miles per gallon. lol.

Is this more likely a warped head or a gasket? maybe an intake manifold problem?? any ideas? how can I best diagnose it? I have a compression gauge and I think I can rig a leak down tester.

btw. right when I start the engine coolant come flooding out of the radiator if I pop the cap.

Thanks in advance. I am new and have loved the other vehicle forums I have been part of.

 

[ovrrdrive]

Most likely with that engine it's just blown head gasket. A compression test should give it away.

However the head would need to be resurfaced anyways if you replaced the gaskets.

 

[cornbreadlion]

by pop the cap do you mean open the radiator cap? If that is the case, it should do that while the coolant is warm and the engine is running and I would be careful becuase you can really hurt yourself doing that.

If that is not the case look for a leak first. My 4runner one day decided not to hold coolant and the heater hose going into the fire wall just dumped it. So I would go and make sure all your hose clamps are nice and tight since the undergo significant pressure when the engine warms up and they may just leak when it's warm and running.

If all that is good, I would do a compression test, and if one of the cylinders is lower than the rest, the head gasket might be blown. I hear the V6 is notorious for that, but supposedly they fixed it with a recall. If your head gasket is blown you will also see oil in your coolant and coolant in your oil, so check those also before you spend a bunch of money on a head gasket. If you do a head gasket it is always a good idea to have the head planed becuase it isn't to expensive. When my volvo blew a head gasket, it lost a bunch of power, foaled one of the spark plugs faster, had trouble cooling and had oil in the coolant and coolant in the oil, and one of the cylinders had a lower compression reading than the rest..

The coolant does go into the intake manifold and throttle, but the only way I can think of finding the problem there is looking around the intake manifold for pools of antifreeze.

Good luck with the problem and hope it's only a leaky hose.