1997 Caravan 3.0 litre engine, loosing coolant about a quart every 3 months.

1997 Caravan 3.0 litre engine, loosing coolant about a quart every 3
months.

Checked the underneat, and inside the cabin under the heater, but no
visable wetness anywhere. Oil is clean, not white smoke, yet the
coolant reservior keeps going down.

75000 miles on the engine, I am running dexcool for GM/s extended
antifreeze mix.

Any ideas what';s happening?

 

Sounds like maybe a head gasket

 

Headgasket most likely.

 

You were doing very well -- perfectly -- up to this point.

There's your problem. Never use Dex-Cool in any application not
specifically intended for it. It can very efficiently attack gasket and
seal materials and incompatible solders, causing system damage that ranges
from the annoying to the extensive and expensive.

A likely source of your coolant leak is one or both head gasket(s). They
can leak such that evidence is very difficult to find. You may want to
make use of ultraviolet-glow leak detection dye.

Whatever you determine to be at fault, change back to regular ("green")
coolant or use Chrysler's newest orange stuff, which is G-O5 -- a premium
coolant also available in the aftermarket that *does not* attack any
system materials.

DS

 

In the Zerex and Havoline brands (possibly others too, but those two are
the only ones I know of).

Bill Putney
(to reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with "x")

 

I'm not sure exactly how the 3.0 is laid out. However, on my 3.3L I had
a leak between the intake manifold and the cylinder head. It was tough
to track down because the coolant usually evaporated off the intake as
it leaked out. Eventually with enough looking I was able to catch it in
the act.

 

Or a water pump, or an "O" ring on the water tube under the intake, or
the tube itself, or a loose hose clamp on a hardened hose, or a
slightly pourous core plug, just to mention a FEW of the causes I've
found on my '88 3.0 New Yorker over the last 10 years.

It's still loosing about a liter every 3 months, but I'm not looking
for the cause. At 17 years and 240000+ Km I'm FINALLY going to let the
"dead horse" lie down, one of these days.