Coolant leaking from gasket

NachaLuva

NachaLuva

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I have coolant leaking from gasket:

20150603_153729 by Matt Chaplin, on Flickr

I'm putting in a ej22 engine hopefully very soon, does anyone know if there's anything I can do to stop or slow the leak till I get the new engine in? Its a pretty fast drip... :(
 
Relieve the pressure on the system by backing off the radiator cap.

Then put a big bit of duct tape over it to prevent losing the cap.

Check the coolant regularly!

With no pressure in the cooling system, you shouldn't leak any coolant at all.

During winter, this should not cause any problems at all.
 
Clean off the area as best you can, rub it down with alcohol. mix up some permaweld epoxy (get it from bursons) 40% hardener 60% bonding agent. leave it 5-8 minutes to thicken, cram it into the joint then smooth another mounted layer over the area, give it 30 odd hours to cure.

Only problem is if you want to do the head gasket, you'll need to grind it off. Used some on a cracked block of a 4age motor to seal it up worked for a year or more before the car went to the wreckers.

Forma gasket silicon sometimes slows it down as well but not for very long.

Mine is leaking from about the same place, but its dried and there's no dripping at all, but I've been watching it.
 
Robbks said:
Chemiweld.?
Click to expand...

I'm wary of stop leak stuff as I've heard it clogs up the radiator. Mine is a nice new all alloy radiator & I want to keep it nice & shiny on the inside for the new engine.

One thing I've wondered is if it reacts with coolant, in particular Subaru coolant which is a bit finnicky. Maybe if I flush out the Subaru coolant & use an aftermarket one there won't be any issues?

idw said:
Clean off the area as best you can, rub it down with alcohol. mix up some permaweld epoxy (get it from bursons) 40% hardener 60% bonding agent. leave it 5-8 minutes to thicken, cram it into the joint then smooth another mounted layer over the area, give it 30 odd hours to cure.

Only problem is if you want to do the head gasket, you'll need to grind it off. Used some on a cracked block of a 4age motor to seal it up worked for a year or more before the car went to the wreckers.
Click to expand...

Thats a possibility too
 
it's good stuff as long as you give it proper time to cure, used it to patch my radiator. Successful pressure test and 2,000kms down the road and all's still good, that said I still don't think its going to be a permanent solution.
 
Tried the PermaWeld epoxy, cleaned the area as thoroughly as I could but it just wouldnt stick. Awkward spot...

Then I tried the Goss ChemiWeld, being very careful to exactly follow their instructions (didnt want to clog up my new radiator!) but that didnt work either. It says it wont stop leaking seals/gaskets, only flaws/cracks.

So I drained & flushed the system thoroughly.

Going to use Ratbags idea of removing pressure from the system. I removed the little metal piece on the bottom of the radiator cap so the coolant is free to go into the overflow. Hopefully this will keep me a little mobile, within reason, while I gather parts & do the swap...

20150613_164108
 
Hope it works out for you, mate.

I drove over 1,000 miles with a 4-6 inch long split in a radiator hose at around 120-140 kmh ...

Wrapped the radiator hose with 3/4" insulation tape, and took the cap all but off. It worked fine.

IMNSHO, running cooling systems at 15 psi is plain bloody stupid. 5-7 psi is more than adequate IME.
 
Not saying that, Pedro.

Back when it was still possible to buy 4-5 psi radiator caps, I always used fhem. No matter what the ambient temperatures, I never had an overheating problem ...

That's why I cannot see the reasoning behind runing cooling systems at 3-4 times the pressure, causing 9-16 times the stress on all associated systems ...
 
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