Author Topic: My thirsty diesel (Read 5501 times)

veritas137 · « **on:** September 19, 2004, 09:06:06 pm »

Car in question is an 86 Golf. And no, it's not thirsty for diesel, it's water that it likes to drink.

I had some cooling issues that have since been resolved, but oddly enough it still consumes about a liter of water for every hundred miles of driving. All the external leaks were fixed, no internal links that I can find. Only thing that looks out of place is a slight leak on the front of the block. So I'm guessing the head gasket is bad. I'm not quit ready to do a headgasket change, and it looks like the previous owner may have tried some epoxy to seal it. I'm a big epoxy fan and was thinking of cleaning everything up and putting some more on.

Anything wrong with this as a short term solution? Also the car doesn't drip water while sitting and I couldn't see any water spraying out or anything. Could there be another possible problem?

Centurion · « **Reply #1 on:** September 21, 2004, 06:53:05 am »

I just saw this happen on one I drove -

When hot a crack opened up on the back side of the engine - because the engine was hot - it just smoked off - and becasue it was a pin hole - not much - but it drained off enough to warp the head when the owner[not me] was not paying attention.

By the time - it china syndromed - it drank stuff quickly - but I have to tell you that when I drove it - 60 miles or so - it acted good - normal heat - normal all else.

I can only figure that it was the owner who missed the signs -

So look hard - look often!

C

BlackTieTD · « **Reply #2 on:** September 21, 2004, 01:01:43 pm »

how does the oil look? milky at all? any swirls in the coolant reservoir?

a litre per 100km sounds like a lot... might be worth putting some dye in the coolant and shining a black light around the engine bay and under the front of the car in the dark if its really got you stumped. sounds like a HG to me! good luck

veritas137 · « **Reply #3 on:** September 21, 2004, 03:40:14 pm »

It's not water getting in the oil or vice versa. I've seen that before and it was the first thing I checked. Also no smoke or anything so it's not water getting into the cylinders. Pretty sure it's just water coming out the front of the headgasket while the car is running.