Thread: disappearing coolant, over heating

intake gaskets.

if the elbows are wet change them, and then change your thermostat and top it off and bleed it.

what engine do you have?

i also just found my rad cap looks to be failing, my over flow is always full to the point of over flowing. im changing that tomorrow. and im also losing coolant. but not on the ground from the engine or rad. ill know in the next few days if the new cap fixes my coolant loss.

It looks scary at first...but it isn't too bad once ya get started..

Sounds like she's a goner. You should sell it to me for about $500 and I'll scrap her for you

I like all the "sounds like" posts. Those sound like....people are guessing. Not giving you guys a hard time..but how can you diagnose this without asking some basic questions?

The hose/rad cap are cool becuase you don't have coolant to warm them up with the engine running. Which would make your temp rise. A gallon a week is a lot. Easy way to test if it's a gasket is to pressure test the system. Many parts stores have the loaner tools for this.

LIM gaskets would have a hard time swallowing that much coolant with it either filling the oil pan (noticed quickly when the bearings are shot) or the motor would have to burn it. That much coolant would cause a skip or very poorly running motor. Pulling your plugs would show you which cylinder is burning it. It's the one with the super clean plug.

Head gaskets, possible, very unlikely. Most people that pull these heads for gaskets find something else as their cause. I would do a bunch of testing first.

Side tanks on the radiators. I realize you said you see no leaking. Side tanks are tricky little buggers to diagnose and often the leak isn't seen as a puddle on the ground. The plastic goes through so many heat cycles it cracks..then only leaks when it's hot.