Coolant leak...need some advice

[Ras12]

I recently noticed that there is some coolant leaking from the rear of my engine. Not sure where. I took a few photos and figured I would ask here in case others experienced something similar and that would allow me to focus more on a potential source.

All input / suggestions are welcome.

Thanks

RAS

[Soundkillr]

Probably the water pump. Check the weep hole at the bottom of the pump, near the pully. If it's leaking it's time for a new pump. Otherwise check your hose clamps....

[DMCMW Dave]

Jack up the front end of the car. If a bunch of coolant runs from there, it's in the valley and you need to take the intake off to get to the hoses back there.

OR just look down into the valley just behind the water pump (bright flashlight) and see if there is coolant pooled there. Same answers.

If the valley is dry, it's probably the water pump as mentioned.

It could also be one of the two small side hoses off the pump, or the thermostat gasket, but those are typically more obvious.

My money is on the hoses. Don't ignore this.

[Ras12]

Thanks everyone....this sounds like a great winter project.

[AugustneverEnds]

48301

This guide is very, very helpful. I used it as a total greenhand and got the intake out and back in again with minimal difficulty. Just watch out for stuck hardware

[Citizen]

Consider also a freeze-plug.

...

[Jonathan]

Do you have an "auto-bleeder" set-up on your car, like the Wings-B-Cool one? Could be that small hose connection too, dripping down from above anyway. Easy enough to look in addition to what was already mentioned.

[cdrusn]

Borrow the cooling system pressure tester from AutoZone. Attach to the coolant reservoir, pump up to 15 pounds and you will see and hear exactly where the coolant is coming from. Want to be sure about this one to avoid unnecessary work and to make sure you get it right. :race:

[DMCMW Dave]

Consider also a freeze-plug.

...

There are not any in the valley.

[dhaney]

This is easy. Get a pressure tester... run it up to 15lbs... and there's your leak!

Most Auto parts stores rent them for free... or just pay for it, you should run a Delorean pressure test at least twice a year.

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

[cdrusn]

:thumbup: Like he said.

[Chris 16409]

Figured I'd ask here about a coolant leak I observed with a car I'm helping a local owner with. After the engine was at temperature coolant started dripping down the passenger side of the engine. Is it possible for coolant to leak out of the head? Alternatively, the valley might be full of coolant and it's pouring over the side. Any ideas? Thanks.

[PJ Grady Inc.]

Figured I'd ask here about a coolant leak I observed with a car I'm helping a local owner with. After the engine was at temperature coolant started dripping down the passenger side of the engine. Is it possible for coolant to leak out of the head? Alternatively, the valley might be full of coolant and it's pouring over the side. Any ideas? Thanks.
I've seen external head gasket leaks in that area before. Sounds like it may be your friend's problem as there is no chance a valley leak will flow OVER a valve cover. You will need to visually confirm this of course which should be very easy to do. A pressure tester would come in handy to make it more obvious perhaps.
Rob

[Chris 16409]

What is the procedure for flushing all the water/coolant/sludge from the engine. After taking off the thermostat housing, there was lots of sludge in the water pump. I can't imagine how the rest of motor is.

[sdg3205]

Draining the block gets a lot out. Between draining at the rad and emptying both sides of the block, there isn't much left. drain as much as possible, fill back up with distilled water, bleed, run engine/circulate, let it cool, drain, repeat until only clean, clear water drains out.

[Chris 16409]

Found where the coolant was leaking from:

48682

How should I go about patching the hole?

[Bitsyncmaster]

Found where the coolant was leaking from:

48682

How should I go about patching the hole?

Never heard of that location getting rot. That looks like a new head is in order. Not sure if welding would work but even that probably would require the head removed.

[DMC-81]

Is that a freeze plug? If so it might be relatively easy to fix. It looks more like damage than rot.

I was just in that area today. Here's a pic of that side...

48683

[Rich_NYS]

Is that a freeze plug? If so it might be relatively easy to fix. It looks more like damage than rot.


I agree, that sure looks like a freeze plug. Dana, do you still have your passenger side exhaust apart? You probably have a good view of it.

Here's a pic of that same location on my car:

48684

(*Edit: Dana was a step ahead of me...great minds, bro! I'll leave this post as-is for good humor...lol.)

[sdg3205]

Wow. That's a first! You probably lost a lot of coolant and held no pressure whatsoever!

[Chris 16409]

Yes! All the coolant came out! I'll check to see if the Plug is listed on DeLorean's site.

[Bitsyncmaster]

Now that others have pointed it out....It does look like the freeze plug. If so, that would not be so big a deal. You would have to remove that exhaust manifold to replace it.

[Chris 16409]

Maybe it's one of these plugs:

https://store.delorean.com/p-6085-plug-m22.aspx

Or:

https://store.delorean.com/p-6078-plug.aspx

Or:

https://store.delorean.com/p-6083-plug-m25.aspx

The parts page doesn't really show the particular plug.

[DMC-81]

Maybe it's one of these plugs:

https://store.delorean.com/p-6085-plug-m22.aspx

Or:

https://store.delorean.com/p-6078-plug.aspx

Or:

https://store.delorean.com/p-6083-plug-m25.aspx

The parts page doesn't really show the particular plug.

Hi Chris,
I measured the outside diameter of the plug and it looks to be 26 to 27 mm, if that helps any. I don't know how much it compresses when installed. I would suggest calling DMC to be sure.

[Chris 16409]

This is the freeze plug I was looking for:

https://store.delorean.com/p-6213-plug-m27.aspx

The engine uses six of them. One next to each exhuast port. After getting the passenger side exhuast manifold off, we discovered the plug next door also had a hole in it. So that's two bad plugs confirmed. The third one on the passenger side looks intact but may get replaced as well. Have not been able to look at the condition of the plugs on the driver side.

[Nicholas R]

How do you expect to replace these? Are you planning to pull the engine or are you trying to do this with the engine in the car? Only one time ever did I work on an engine that was missing a freeze plug. It wasn't a DeLorean, it was a Chevy 1500, but it was a similar situation. The plug was missing when we bought the vehicle. We tried EVERYTHING to get a new plug into the engine with the engine in the vehicle. Hammers, pry bars, bathing the plug in dry ice, but we didn't have the access or leverage needed to accurately drive it in. In the end we had to use a universal expanding freeze plug:

http://images.oreillyauto.com/parts/img/medium/mtm/02603-007.jpg

Obviously this was a crappy old truck so we didn't care too much, but I probably wouldn't do this to my DeLorean. To do it right I assume the engine needs to be removed.