You mentioned a shop in Lawndale so I assume that you live somewhere in the South Bay. Thus, I'd highly suggest taking the car to Callas Rennsport in Torrance and they will get it working in no time. This may cost you a little bit but it will be well worth the money to get some peace of mind.

Yes, I do live in the south bay.
I have been going to Rob Wessels at Dutch Treat.
He's a good guy and has been straight with me all along.
A second opinion can never hurt, though.

911 Monty, I'm going to go outside and look at the car and shoot some photos for you.
Last night when I had the rear end up in the air (insert bad jokes here) I crawled under the car and saw the water coming out of the end of the drain hose from the coolant tank. That was the only place that is leaking.

I will report back shortly and yes it's 2 billion degrees here, too.
It's been like this for about a week now, but summer is always in Sept-Oct in Socal.

Yes, 911Monty.
There is NO DOUBT that is the hose that is leaking.
I saw it with my own eyes last night.
http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1504460807.jpg

So I will now go and look through the drain hole and see what's going on.

Ok. Good. Is that coolant leaking from the seam?

I need to go check that next and will report back.

ok. Thanks for your patience. Here are a few photos and what I just did this afternoon and what happened:


http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1504476675.jpg
http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1504476683.jpg
http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1504476697.jpg
http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1504476707.jpg
http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1504476714.jpg
http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1504476738.jpg

I had the rear of the car lifted overnight with the bleeder valve open. I started the car and ran it until the cooling fans came on. I looked in the drain hole and did not see any fluid moving, but I did stick a dry screwdriver in it and it came out wet.

I do not see any obvious cracks or leaks in or around the coolant tank.
It did start leaking from the overflow as soon as I started the car.
I felt the hose coming from the engine and it was warm. The hose coming from the thermostat was not, even once the cooling fans came on. If the thermostat is stuck closed would this cause the coolant in the engine to heat up enough to where it then is spit back into the overflow? It's a low temp thermostat from Pelican that was put in about 3 months ago that may have been damaged by the meltdown. What would the symptoms be? The temp gauge rises to 180 or so very rapidly and didn't used to do that before the meltdown. If the water pump impeller is melted or missing, would I have these same symptoms as well?

What I simply have not understood yet is why it starts dumping coolant from the overflow as soon as I start the engine from dead cold. In this case it sat all evening.
The new oil does have it purring as it should, so now I just need to understand what's needed to keep it cool.

I appreciate the help. It's not Tuesday yet and I really believe that with your help and experience I can get to the culprit logically and without going broke?

Thank you!

Wow. Good job hanging in there! What a mystery. To answer your question regarding the cooling system hoses, well this is where a bunch of engineers got together and decided to redesign the wheel. So unlike american iron, the thermostat on these engines controls the coolant as it returns from the radiators not to the radiators. So it should be cooler than the coolant from the engine block which is the hot side to the radiators. Confused? Yeah they also designed the IMSB. I think their reason was so that coolant is always circulating through the oil cooler.

The coolant leaking from the overflow is still a question, unbelievable. The last thing I can suggest is this. In your pictures of the hoses on the coolant tank the one with no clamp is the drain hose. Can you remove it preferably at the manifold connection so you can put it in a container? Then start your engine and observe for leak? It has to have a source. I do not believe in magic.

I can certainly try that.
I don't know where it goes from the other side of the firewall.
It's not the one that goes into the top of the oil cooler, is it?
I'll look for a diagram now before I try that.
I'll be standing by in the mean time.
This car is a Rubik's Cube.
I don't believe in magic either, gremlins are another story though.

Well it's certainly not supposed to be the hose from the top of the oil cooler, but at this point....... If you look at your picture you see the hose with no clamp. It has a short hose that goes to the manifold at the front of the trunk where they pass into the engine compartment.

Ok. I think I got it. Will go unplug it and put it into a container and start engine and see what happens.

I am in over my head at this point.

From what I can tell that overflow drain line comes right out of the coolant tank.
The hose that the quick disconnect blew out on comes from the top of the oil cooler and goes into the tank. I don't know where the other hose from the tank that goes from the inside of the firewall goes to. (I don't have a Bentley and can't find a decent diagram online) And I can't get my hands in there, which is why I had the mechanic install that tank in the first place!

I tried plugging up the overflow hose to make sure that nothing else is leaking.
Nothing else is.
It's only coming from that overflow hose as seen in the photo: (not my actual photo, but the exact same thing)

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1504486772.jpg

The leaking apparently has nothing to do with temperature. It starts as soon as I start the car. It only gets worse as the engine heats up.

If this hose does indeed go straight from the coolant tank, how is this possible?

I don't see any lowering of the level in the coolant tank as it's happening or any movement of the fluid. Granted it's a small amount of leakage, but it has to be coming from somewhere, right? Is that tank under any pressure when the car is first started?

I'm ready to call the junk man again I am so frustrated.

I may end up doing that anyway, as I don't know if I'm well on my way down that slippery slope to a money pit.

I'm also no mechanic. I can understand principles and do basic stuff, but I have zero clue what's going on here.

Does anyone have any ideas what's going on or been through this before?

Thanks!

OK, first of all, calm down. No, the tank is not under pressure when the car is cold. But I have some concerns that unless the lines that broke in the first place were correctly reconnected, you have been chasing your tail. If memory serves, you broke the line leading off the top of the oil cooler; if that line was not correctly reconnected to the tank, coolant is going to flow all over the place as soon as the car is started.

I would most strongly recommend you get your cooling system pressure tested. That will immediately tell you if it is tight or not; I suspect it is not.

Thanks JFP.

You are correct, the quick disconnect on the line from the top of the oil cooler melted and blew.

I'm taking deep breaths.....

A system pressure test takes about 5 min to do, and will immediately tell you where you are. It does require a special tool and the correct adaptor to attach to your tank (the adaptor is for a VW), but will immediately tell you if your cooling system is closed up or open to the atmosphere. I suspect that is where you are.

Actually this may be a good thing and I was half expecting this to happen.Remember the comment about the hose from the oil cooler? If the leak had been from the tank it would have meant replacing the tank. This would have cost several hundred dollars. I suspect that somehow the hose which blew apart may be connected to the wrong hose, possibly the drain hose. This might only require switching some hoses. Yes I know the hoses are different diameters and this should be unlikely but at this point anything is suspect and needs to be checked and confirmed.
You may have to do some feeling by hand or use a scope camera to confirm.
There are 3 hoses from the manifold to the tank. The hose in your pic on the left should attach to the top nipple of the manifold. This is the smallest diameter hose. This is the connection from the top of the oil cooler that the fitting broke on and should go to the purge valve. Of course the bottom hose on the manifold should be the drain hose.
Please follow the hose from the oil cooler, thru the broken fitting and to the top connection of the manifold.
It is probably easiest to determine that the drain hose goes to the bottom fitting. I believe you can see this from below.

I see JFP beat me to it while I was typing. Thanks!

Here is a picture of the manifold from inside the engine compartment.

The small diameter hose at the top is the oil cooler connection. The middle I believe is the vent from the radiators (not sure since I've never followed it). The lower that you can see just below the bend in the metal piping from the middle hose is the drain hose. Hope this helps.

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1504490509.jpg


And yes a pressure test would of course been the proper thing to do, but hell you've still got a full day and may resolve this yet!

I like this theory a lot and it's inexpensive!

I'm done for tonight, though.

Will be checking this board but not going to try any more work until tomorrow.

Thanks guys.

FYI The way I captured that image of the manifold was by using a camera held down behind the AOS, I think I had to move the shift cables out of the way until I found the correct angle.

The other thing I am going to try is disconnecting the quick release on the hose coming from the top of the oil cooler and then starting the car.

I'm going to need to flush and change the coolant anyway at this point.

This theory makes a lot of sense because somehow the overflow hose is being fed a steady stream of coolant.

I wonder what the flow rate from that hose from the oil cooler should be?

Also I'm going to see about procuring a pressure tester.

Inspector Clouseau will resume his work tomorrow.

Check your local auto parts stores, one may either rent or loan the tool.

The theory makes a lot of sense because the tank has been eliminated as the source of the coolant.

The source now has to be from the engine. Since the hose that failed was the oil cooler vent, This is the logical conclusion.

So if the hose from the oil cooler is connected to the overflow hose by mistake doesn't that mean that one of the other two hoses is also not connected properly or there is another hose that is not connected at all out of the 3 coming out of the overflow tank?

I really need an accurate diagram of these hoses and I don't have one.

Next investment is a Bentley Manual.

Yes it would mean there are improperly connected hoses. That is why I will suggest getting a picture of the manifold from inside the engine compartment (as I took) and the manifold inside the trunk that you took previously, only including the hoses to the manifold. They should be straight and not crossed over.

I have the Bently manual and it does not show these connections.

I'll try it but it's so tight in there and I don't have the right tools or dexterity for working that tight in there in the dark. (but I will try)

It's not right that the hoses are missing clamps, either.

I tried to put the coolant bottle in myself first to save a few bucks and failed miserably.

I then hired a CL mechanic who screwed it all up while I was trying to save a few bucks.

I then had to pay the mechanic to do it correctly (which he did, it runs great!)

Lesson learned there as well (and of course the hard way)

I'll see what I can do tomorrow.

But when I go in on Tue am, I know what I need him to do first.

Thanks and I don't see how it could be anything else (although it can)

He may have crossed hoses when he replaced the melted fitting (it happens)

Then we replaced the cap and that was not it ("It's still doing it")

I don't know if he bled the system or only added coolant, either. I never thought to ask. He did tell me he added a gallon of coolant, which wasn't as much as I had thought was lost in the meltdown. When those drops of water hit the cats at a stop light in traffic, it's Wagnerian Opera.

I now know.

I can pull the panel and feel the water pump bearing and pulley tomorrow, but I don't think that's the problem.

If it is the impeller, then the only way to know that is to pull it out and look at it.

I'm sure there are things I'm missing, but this is what I have learned so far.

You have been most helpful and encouraging.

Thank you.

Here is a picture of the hoses as they should be in the trunk,

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02/Pic41504499556.jpg

It's the hoses on the other side of the firewall that I don't have a diagram of.

The fitting that blew is on the other side of the firewall and that's where he made the repair (he told me that was all he did)

I don't think he touched these hoses (but I may be wrong)

But just so I understand correctly, the bottom hose out of the bottle should go to the drain tube on the other side. Right?

So if it's somehow connected to the hose that comes out of the oil cooler, every time the engine it's going right down the drain?

Well this detail makes me feel better. I had wanted to ask who changed the tank HAHA.
I think you may want a new mechanic.

I'd REALLY be interested in a pic of the manifold from inside the engine compartment and the trunk......

I'm not too concerned about the water pump at this point. I believe the worst that could have happened to it would be whatever happened when the pulley grenaded that there might have been enough deflection in the shaft to allow the impeller blades to make contact with the block and may have been sanded down a bit.

Yes I know. However from the pic I supplied it will be obvious if they are wrong.

I see now.

But the tank was done by them months ago.

It was never an issue until the day the pulley went bad.

Someone earlier in the thread did refer me to a different mechanic near where I live in case I need it (thank you for that)

So we will see.

Maybe I'll be able to do it.

I will also get you a photo.

This is the next logical step. Too much time and long distance troubleshooting to assume or take anything for granted now. We're getting closer though.

Point taken.

The car still runs great.

It just has a bladder problem.

If its loosing coolant, you could ideally run two tubes from under the driver and passenger seats up to the water pump. Car needs to be parked outdoor for this mod to work. It would refill your coolant tank periodically and protect the immobilizer at the same time.

Sorry to be sarcastic, read 'bladder problem' and couldn't resist. Sorry.

Hope your indy will be able pressurize that misbehaving cooling system for you this Tuesday and let you know what's wrong with it. Luck man

Back at it.
It's a new day so a few things to try.
I will also get some photos of the manifold hoses.
We will see.

Nothing short of maddening.

Just for laughs I unplugged the connection that the mechanic put into the hose from the top of the oil cooler and started the car for a few seconds.

Needless to say, coolant was flowing everywhere and at a very high rate.
There's no way that hose is connected directly to the drain hose as it's just too high of a flow rate.

But, for the brief few seconds I did have it disconnected, I did not see anything coming out of the drain hose!

I reconnected the hose and then lightly sprayed everything down with water to get the coolant off of the car and engine. I then let it sit a bit and then started it up.

It started draining drops and a small amount of coolant again out of the hose.
I drove it around a bit and noticed that it was draining most of the drive.

I pulled it back into the garage and noticed that there was steam coming out of the drain hole and the side of the car. That was probably some of the water I used to lightly was off the coolant.

I then started it up two different times and nothing was dripping out of the drain!

I will also take some photos of the manifold after it cools down a bit.

You really shouldn't mess with something you don't understand.

Very true.

I did loosen the belt and feel the water pump pulley.

I am pretty certain that I felt vertical play in the bearing, which can't be good.

I'm not doing anything else except going to the mechanic tomorrow.

I'm in over my head.

At least I have a little bit more information to give him.

I talked to the mechanic at length yesterday.
He wants $1100 to replace the water pump and thermostat!
I'm not willing to gamble that kind of money at this point.
Call me crazy, but I'm going to DIY the water pump and thermostat, flush the system, clean the front radiators, and see what happens.
I'll gamble the $300, some skinned knuckles perhaps, and an afternoon to see what's going on. If it still leaks or the head gasket is blown or worse, than it's either for sale or to the scrap yard it goes.
On the other hand, if it solves my problem and best case scenario is I get some more life out of the car or can sell it while it's running.
Worst case is I'm out $300 and some time.
Inspecting the impeller will reveal a lot and where to go from there.

I have a nearly new waterpump (1k miles) that I'll give you for a great price.

let me know.

Great call.