Excessive radiator fluid use

[mattmorgo]

hey guys I'm having a problem with excessive radiator fluid use at the moment I'm using about 1L to every 500kms  : . i had my water pump replaced and timing belt done about  two months ago and for the last month its been using alot of fluid. there is no leaks at all. so any thoughts on why it would be using so much 

 <ii>Matt

[Nissvit]

any bubbles in the radiator fluid? a cracked head/ stuffed head gasket can either use the fluid internally or bubble it out of the overflow bottle.

when the engine is cold take off the radiator cap and start the engine, it will take 10mins or so till the engine gets hot and the fliud starts flowing well but when it starts flowing watch and see if there are continous bubbles in the fluid.

The other thing that comes to mind is that a small leak onto a hot metal surface will evaporate and you won't see much residue. check that there isn't a leak in your radiator core that is in the fins and pooling at the bottom of the radiator and evaporating. you will find a white powder residue..

[mattmorgo]

alrighty nissvit so i looked around and couldn't find any white powder so i turned my car on took the cap off and let it heat up. under idle it wouldn't bubble but even slight throttle it started bubbling, they were quite large bubbles popping up opposed to bubbles that you see when you've boilt water. so are we leaning towards a cracked head/ stuffed head gasket?

[Nissvit]

yep...

what type of car is it... and what engine is in it?

[mattmorgo]

suzuki sierra with standard engine early 1996 leaf sprung

[Nissvit]

ok,

probably head or gasket if its a 1300....

[mattmorgo]

alrighty chris is this something that can be driven on until the weekend or is it something i should take it off the road for, to add to the complications im driving about an hour and a half each way!

[4x4ish]

if its a gasket its about $600 to fix, drive in drive out at suziauto at springwood. that sucks when that happen as u have to pay for you car to be back to normal and your car is not any better than before.

Nissvit what are the reason these things happen and how can we avoid them? i normally keep an eye on the coolant level but its still happened before.  

[mattmorgo]

Nissvit what are the reason these things happen and how can we avoid them? i normally keep an eye on the coolant level but its still happened before.  

good question as with these long drives ive been religiously checking fluid levels and its never been run dry

[madmitchsuzuki]

there's soo many reasons why heads and gaskets go, here's some basics ...

plain old over heating (multiple causes), easy to avoid with regular checks, which will help
you pick up any abnormal usage, and should lead you to carry out a more thorough check  ...

the next is failure of components such as water pump/hoses/heater cores radiator and cap etc ...
again, a regular once over will pick up on these sorts of things before they get out of hand ...

corrosion, and rusty/gummy build ups causing leaks or blockages, again regular checks of coolant
level and making sure you have fresh coolant, at the correct concerntration is the way to avoid these ...

I have been told, but didn't really believe, that running your engine - alloy head/cast iron block,
without a thermostat will allow irreglular temperature expansion rates between the head and block
causing excessive strain and wear on head gasket and mating surfaces ...

there's alot more to know about cooling systems, such as electrolysis and stray currents, but
with regular checks of your coolant level and quality/concerntration, most of this can be avoided
or atleast caught before it gets out of control ...

Hope thats helpful 

[504_matt]

alrighty chris is this something that can be driven on until the weekend or is it something i should take it off the road for, to add to the complications im driving about an hour and a half each way!

Mate if you monitor whats going on it is most likely not going to get a lot worse in the short term, if you need to drive the car then go to supercheap and get a bottle of chemiweld or sealup and put it in the radiator following the instructions. On one of my cars I did that to get me to work for a week or two till I had time to fix it, it worked so well that I forgot about it for 6 months before it started using fluid again and I fixed it.  Usually this kind of thing on an alloy headed engine will be associated with corrosion around the water transfers between block and head. You will need to have the head checked, repaired and surfaced when you do the job. Where are you situated.

[Thompsonhq]

You could also have  leak in your heater core.. i had similar problems not long back..

[hizook]

One of the most comon things that I have found is the radiator core itself blocking up as well. I do agree with everything that has been said so far but alloy will corode no matter what you do to it. One of the things that I have found as well is the Earth strap between the engine and the body usually found at the back of the distributor housing, attaching and extra lead helps as well.Chemyweld will and does work but follow the instructions to the letter it is not a case of just putting this stuff into the radiator.

[mattmorgo]

hey guys update on this there were no CO2 gasses comming through radiator, so we tried chemiweld and its now day 5 and after two days the fluid use seemed to stop. so hopefully this is the end of all the problems for now. thanks for all the help guys 
  matt