I have a large coolant leak at the front of my engine. I've had the car up on ramps and cant see where it's comin from. It's deffo not the head gaskets. I can see some coolant plastered on the front of the engine but not where it's dripping from.

 

Ivan:mad: :confused: :eek:

can you tell where its dripping down from? I put a white sheel under my car if i think its leaking, helps track down what is leaking and where it is leaking from, rather than sticking finger in it from ground and giving it a sniff/lick ;)

If you follow the pipe that holds the temp senders, towards the block, there are two rubber hoses that go into the block, they are quite often the culprit!

 

Mark

You need a littly make up mirror like with her face powder stuff. Thats ideal for checking those 2 hoses under and behind the top water pipe. You also need a torch. Do it when the engine is good and hot with some pressure in the top hose.

 

Those little pipes are a nuckle scrapper to change but you can actually do them without taking off the radiator and fan etc.

waterpump??

It is easier to take off the fan, there are a 4 or 5 nuts attaching the fan to the pulley, take em off but don't disturb the pulley!

 

After the engine rebuild I have had a look at the mounts that these hoses attach to on the block. They corrode severly and it would be worth taking those off and cleaning or replacing them, if you were concerned about doing a proper job!

 

Dazza the Z demi god, says he has seen a couple corrode right through!

Thanks guys. The water is dripping off the bottom pulley on the engine. Did think water pupm but would this drip this much. It leaks about 5 litres every 50 miles or so! I have a dentists mirror at home so I'll check these pipes. I looked at them yesterday and they did have some green staining around them.

 

Ivan

If it is the pipes you can get at them by taking off the top rad hose then with a Allen head socket and short extension you take off the 3 I think long allen screws holding the top water connection on. You also need a pair of long nose pliers to compress the ears on the self tensioning hose clips and push them in towards the cylinder heads to release the tension on the hose. If some prat has fitted jubilee clips it can be a bitch - had happened on mine. Get the proper springy ones from Nissan in that case. You should then be able to gently pull the top hose conn out of the hoses. Watch not stuff anything into the radiator - as I said this is a way to do it not the recommended way. I had the darn thing off the correct way the first time but three more times the way described above because the Halfords instant gasket goo kept on leaking again. Changed to Hermetite and all was well. Could get it off in 10 minutes in the end!

 

If you've big hands you've not much chance doing it this way as the fan gets in the way as well. If it is these hoses then its a lot easier than a water pump.

 

Also lost water quite quickly once heated up and under pressure. You could see it drip drip all the time from the crank pulley or off the sump.

Nice one WillieO! I was just about to post to see how to take there off. Do you just put some gunk aroung the pipe then or fit new pipes? I have the small self tensioning clips and small hands so shouldn't be too difficult. :eek:

 

Ivan

If it is one of the hoses that is your problem then buy the pair from Nissan they cost about £8 I think and they had to get them in for me. The top hose connection not only connects these short hoses one to each cylinder head but also flange connects the water jacket on the inlet manifold / plenum (stand to be corrected here). That flange connection only uses silicone gasket goo- there is no gasket so you have to clean up the mating faces nice as well as apply the instant gasket and wait for it to gel etc etc before fitting.