Losing coolant

[Don Bradner]

I have trouble reconciling that with what I've seen - 15000 miles with virtually
no coolant addition required (except the very short period after I worked on the
heating system), then 550 miles with 5 quarts used. The 15000 included a lot of
nights colder than anything I've experienced in the past couple of weeks.

I see these possiblities:

unlikely: flowing into the crankcase
unlikely: flowing into the transmission
unlikely: burped some long-standing air pocket
possible: flowing into the cylinders and going out the exhaust
higher possible: hose leak under pressure
higher possible: pressure cap bad

The last one is easy to preemptively fix, and if I still lose fluid it is on to
the pressure tester you recommended. After that?

If I replace the cap and then lose no fluid I will assume either 3 or 6 was
correct, and I won't care which it was.

Don Bradner
90 PT40 "Blue Thunder"
Posting today by satellite from Hilton Head, South Carolina
My location: http://www.bbirdmaps.com/user2.cfm?user=1

On 10/23/2008 at 11:36 PM David Brady wrote:

>Don,
>
>At some point I think you mentioned pre-warming your engine
>to 100 deg F prior to start, otherwise you get tons of smoke
>out the exhaust. Randy mentioned that the 2-stroke diesels
>will leak coolant into the cylinders when cold due to o-ring
>shrinkage on the liners. Maybe this is what your seeing.