P38 4.6 HSE problems, coolant leak?

Morning,

Over the past few days I've been getting a knock on cold start on my 1998 4.6 HSE P38. It seems to have started doing it with the temperature drop outside, everything runs smoothly once up to temperature. I'd planned on doing an oil and filter change this weekend and going from there to diagnose the issue. The level looks fine.

Typically, after spending last night talking about it with a mate, the drive to work this morning went terribly wrong. Accelerating (not foot to the floor stuff) up the slip road to get onto the motorway all that can be seen behind me is plumes of white steam/smoke!! Temperature light is slap bang in the middle though, I was watching that carefully as I was pulling over.

I pull over and there is steam pouring out of the engine bay, I pop the bonnet and there is green coolant sprayed everywhere by the looks of it. I've had to abandon the car there for the time being, will go back at either lunchtime or after work and get the AA out to have a look/recover me.

Any pointers as to what this is likely to be, apart from expensive that is!!

Thanks for all the really useful information and pointers, helped me out no end....You guys are great..

Hi Paul
I'm not a P38 expert as such but I am a vehicle tech. If the white smoke you mentioned is coming from the exhaust then it is coolant getting into the combustion chambers. eg head gasket or on these engines the block problem around the cylinder liners. As far as the coolant all over the engine bay then that will be due to pressure in the cooling system and blowing out from the expansion tank or hose joints or even a split hose due to the pressure. Not a quick fix in any vehicle.
Hope this is of some use.
Roger 47

Let's start the right way,
1) you want instant answers then go to a dealer or call a break down service, your problem is not our problem.
2)number two this is not a paid support service and maybe the people around didn't feel they knew enough to post



blown headgasket/slipped liners porous block-without more information it's hard to tell-generally head gasket or slipped liner will give water in the oil or white exhaust smoke........

fanatic said:

Let's start the right way,
1) you want instant answers then go to a dealer or call a break down service, your problem is not our problem.

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Yeah you're so so right, I totally shouldn't have expected a reply within two days or so from other owners and like minded fans of the old Rangey who may have experienced similar problems or even had an inkling of where to check first. Silly me expecting such a thing from a forum dedicated to these vehicles.

fanatic said:

2)number two this is not a paid support service and maybe the people around didn't feel they knew enough to post

Click to expand...

Bloody hell, isn't it? I feel so stupid now, I just didn't realise that it wasn't a paid support service. I shall get the other half to thrash me severely with some birch for being so silly.. Rest assured I will hang my head in shame from now on and resist from posting such outrageous questions here.

fanatic said:

blown headgasket/slipped liners porous block-without more information it's hard to tell-generally head gasket or slipped liner will give water in the oil or white exhaust smoke........

Click to expand...

Thanks for that part of the answer at least, something constructive is better than nothing I suppose. Cheers dude.

PaulJ said:

Yeah you're so so right, I totally shouldn't have expected a reply within two days or so from other owners and like minded fans of the old Rangey who may have experienced similar problems or even had an inkling of where to check first. Silly me expecting such a thing from a forum dedicated to these vehicles.



Bloody hell, isn't it? I feel so stupid now, I just didn't realise that it wasn't a paid support service. I shall get the other half to thrash me severely with some birch for being so silly.. Rest assured I will hang my head in shame from now on and resist from posting such outrageous questions here.



Thanks for that part of the answer at least, something constructive is better than nothing I suppose. Cheers dude.

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arsey ****

Roger 47 said:

Hi Paul
I'm not a P38 expert as such but I am a vehicle tech. If the white smoke you mentioned is coming from the exhaust then it is coolant getting into the combustion chambers. eg head gasket or on these engines the block problem around the cylinder liners. As far as the coolant all over the engine bay then that will be due to pressure in the cooling system and blowing out from the expansion tank or hose joints or even a split hose due to the pressure. Not a quick fix in any vehicle.
Hope this is of some use.
Roger 47

Click to expand...

Many thanks for taking the time to reply, much appreciated.

It ended up being a split hose that leaked coolant out all over the bay. Took a while to find it but I tracked it down eventually, replaced the offending article, flushed the system through and bled out all the air. All seems to be running OK at the moment. I did a sniffer test on it and it looks like everything is OK on that front.

Going to give it a bit of an overhaul at the weekend, oil & filter etc, give it some pampering and keep my fingers crossed that that will appease the coolant gods.

Cheers

Sean said:

arsey ****

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Yeah it's been a ****ty week

PaulJ said:

Yeah it's been a ****ty week

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as far as i know that's not our fault

Sean said:

as far as i know that's not our fault

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You're probably right, though you never know these days, sabotage everywhere!

Seeing as you've calmed down, a little hint that may help.
years ago we used to do the 3.5 and 3.9 v8 vogue head gaskets- started off with poor starting.
Now those liquid coolant testers are useless- we used to start the vehicle up with an exhaust gas analyzer in the engine bay for background HC then sniff over the cooling header tank- if it jumps up in hc then you have head gasket failure way before the colored fluid will tell you.

If your still concerned your local friendly mot station can do this type of test:flame::fighting2:.