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Coolant leak after IM area refurbishment

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    Coolant leak after IM area refurbishment

    I'm a bit stressed after all this and hoping for some help!

    Have 1990 325i with M20 that was idling a bit low due to a vacuum leak. It was also just absolutely disgustingly dirty, so I decided to remove the IM and VC to paint and replace necessary gaskets. Off the top of my head I replaced the IM gasket, VC gasket, PCV hose, and vent tube O-rings. Got it all reinstalled and it idled perfectly and ran great! Immediately took it down again to replace the drivers rear trailing arm, and along with other priorities getting in the way, made this a several month long downtime.

    So this morning I finished up the trailing arm and hopped in the car to take it for a drive and she ran great! So I decided to quickly hop on the freeway for 1 exit to make sure it felt good at speed, and head back home. All went well until I exited the freeway, stopped at a light, and saw steam seeping out of the engine bay! Shit! I look at the temp gauge and she's overheating!

    Pulled over, let it cool some, made the rest of the short drive home, and immediately started looking into the issue. So first of all, I realized at this point that it was low on coolant which I'm *hoping* was the cause of the temp gauge reading so high... basically an air pocket at the temp sensor. There was steam pouring out of the engine bay, near the front drivers side of the engine and even a noticeable stream of coolant pouring from somewhere under the IM.

    Given this description, I'm wondering if there's an obvious place this could be coming from that may even be a result of the IM work I'd bee doing? Thoughts? I'm leaning towards the thermostat housing myself, but need to figure out moving the fuel rail to get it off.
    2003 Z4 3.0 6-speed- Silver, 19's, daily driver
    1990 Silver 325i- Lowered on H&R OE Sports, e90 drop hats, KYB shocks, color matched rocker panels, 16" Emortal RS wheels on 205/50/16 tires... Currently getting a full refresh including an S52 swap!
    1997 Black Ford Probe GT- Stripped to 2220lbs, MS3X, Forged motor in midst of assembly... Dyno results and 1/4 mile times pending

    #2
    TB has coolant lines going into it. You obviously had to remove them to remove your IM for gaskets change. Did you reconnect everything where it supposed to go? Don't know if you drive anywhere below freezing...if not, I would just delete TB coolant lines if that is your problem.

    Comment


      #3
      Thanks for the response! I did take a brief look and as far as I can tell they're installed correctly and have no leaks. The source of the leak seems to be a bit more towards the front of the engine than these lines...
      2003 Z4 3.0 6-speed- Silver, 19's, daily driver
      1990 Silver 325i- Lowered on H&R OE Sports, e90 drop hats, KYB shocks, color matched rocker panels, 16" Emortal RS wheels on 205/50/16 tires... Currently getting a full refresh including an S52 swap!
      1997 Black Ford Probe GT- Stripped to 2220lbs, MS3X, Forged motor in midst of assembly... Dyno results and 1/4 mile times pending

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by dadsbmw View Post
        Thanks for the response! I did take a brief look and as far as I can tell they're installed correctly and have no leaks. The source of the leak seems to be a bit more towards the front of the engine than these lines...
        one of TB lines go to the thermostat housing that is located in front. Front side of the engine locates the Thermostat housing....check it's hoses. Remove the air intake all the way down to TB and look in there. You shouldn't have any issues locating coolant leak traces.

        Comment


          #5
          Well there is leak somewhere. Start looking for it.

          Fill it back up, bleed the air out with the bleed screw on the thermostat housing, start it up, let id idle in the garage and start looking for the leak with a torch.

          Comment


            #6
            It's apart for now. I went ahead an ordered a new thermostat housing, as who knows when mine was last maintained/replaced. That's pretty much my number 1 guess at this point. Fingers crossed!

            I also did a compression test to see if there was anything obvious. Numbers from grille to firewall were 150ps, 150psi, 150psi, 130psi, 140psi, 160psi...

            Waiting on parts to come in. Then I'll put her back together, run her for a bit, and if nothing obvious comes up I'll do an oil change to make sure no water made it's way in there...
            2003 Z4 3.0 6-speed- Silver, 19's, daily driver
            1990 Silver 325i- Lowered on H&R OE Sports, e90 drop hats, KYB shocks, color matched rocker panels, 16" Emortal RS wheels on 205/50/16 tires... Currently getting a full refresh including an S52 swap!
            1997 Black Ford Probe GT- Stripped to 2220lbs, MS3X, Forged motor in midst of assembly... Dyno results and 1/4 mile times pending

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by dadsbmw View Post
              It's apart for now. I went ahead an ordered a new thermostat housing, as who knows when mine was last maintained/replaced. That's pretty much my number 1 guess at this point. Fingers crossed!

              I also did a compression test to see if there was anything obvious. Numbers from grille to firewall were 150ps, 150psi, 150psi, 130psi, 140psi, 160psi...

              Waiting on parts to come in. Then I'll put her back together, run her for a bit, and if nothing obvious comes up I'll do an oil change to make sure no water made it's way in there...
              IMHO, throwing money in the wrong direction. Can't see how the thermostat housing on these cars can go bad. Seals, hoses, o-rings...very possible. Housing...very unlikely

              Comment


                #8
                Yeah I hear that. Partly replacing it because there's a good amount of buildup around one of the outlets and going to do the gasket between housing/block and o-ring on the t-stat at the same time. Also going to look at the hoses connecting to it to make sure they aren't bad either.
                2003 Z4 3.0 6-speed- Silver, 19's, daily driver
                1990 Silver 325i- Lowered on H&R OE Sports, e90 drop hats, KYB shocks, color matched rocker panels, 16" Emortal RS wheels on 205/50/16 tires... Currently getting a full refresh including an S52 swap!
                1997 Black Ford Probe GT- Stripped to 2220lbs, MS3X, Forged motor in midst of assembly... Dyno results and 1/4 mile times pending

                Comment

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