P38 v8 massive water loss

Ok last post was overheating happened 2 times so went in turned out the water pump was leaking a little and rad was pretty shot

Now car pressure tested uP con collant spot on. This was Friday. I happened to have go abroad so got a friend to pop round and check the coolant as wide using it tomorrow and it turns out its had 8 pints to too it up

Can a head gasket use 8 pints of water in under 100miles? Seems impossible

Look forward to replies

I understand the bits of the thread that are in English. Yes, if head gasket is blown it can use 8 pints of water in no time. Why should it be impossible?

You also need to very urgently find out where the coolant is going. If it's an external leak, fix it, if it's leaking internally then your engine, if it's not wrecked already, soon will be. If you have suffered the normal V8 engine failure of a cracked block with slipped liner/s, this fault can't usually be shown by a coolant pressure test. The only way to test the block is remove the heads, water pump and block the coolant ports on both sides, but head removal usually shows where the problem is. Good luck!

true in many ways but i thought head removal wasnt prove block was cracked

jamesmartin said:

........head removal wasnt prove block was cracked

Click to expand...

Nope, it won't, but if one or more piston crowns and combustion chambers look super clean as if they have been steam cleaned, you can pretty much guess what has caused it

Actually you'd look like this if that's what you saw!!

Sorry for the poor spelling guys it was 1 am in Dubai and wanted to get a thread up so I could get an idea for when I woke up!

Will get it in for another pressure test tomorrow and see what happens there.

Just spoke to the garage and they seemd to think there were no leaks had tested hot and cold however wet carpet in drivers footwell may tell another story. The o rings are showing in the history only a few 1000 miles ago but it's still wet so think that maybe the next port of call.

The wife also noticed that the heater is not working very well and never gets that hot??

When 100% the coolant is not leaking then will investigate further

If you're short of 8 pints of coolant then I'm not suprised the heater wasn't working! Your wife would have soggy stilettos and very wet feet if 8 pints were sploshing around the pedals though. The liner issue pretty much always over pressures the cooling system, rock hard rad hoses are a major clue, so check yours are just squishable when hot. The heater O rings are usually a straight forward replacement job once you've gained access, but as the single clamp screw on the manifold can be awkward to refit it's possible they have leaked, lets hope this is all it is. Of course a luke warm heater could be caused by stuck blend motors (usually with the book symbol on the air con display, but not always), you can check this by simply feeling the heater pipes in the engine bay, to the right of the engine there are 2 x 1 inch pipes that connect to metal pipes which go through the bulkhead, these should be hot once the engine has warmed up, if they are but the heater output to the cabin is tepid, look for a different fault.

sort out the o rings first, and then pressure test again, look at back of cylinder heads to check that you have not got any coolant leaking out of the head gaskets and running down the back of the block when it is parked up cold !

Alan thanks for advice def not 8 pints in foot well an pipes are soft maybe a little too soft. Should hear shortly on o rings and and pressure test will get them to check head for visible signs of leakage but pretty sure that's not there

Have driven again today and seems that the heater is working quickly I wonder if it was not bled properly after the water pump and rad change as these were the identified parts that were leaking

Just keep swimming