1964 1/5 289 water loss

[AndyP]

Checked my rad today and added 2 ltr water, went for a 20 mile or so drive, came home and a few hours later checked my water level again an had to add another 1 ltr.

There is no sign of a water leak so now worried about head gasket?

[pmustang]

Do another drive. Maybe had an air pocket that's now passed lowering the level

[AndyP]

ok thanks I will do that but this is the third time Iv'e added water.

[ALLAN R]

To be honest adding that much water does sound like a leak or gasket. Check the carpet under the heater and the joint in the heater case under the dash. Also check the water pump around the pulley and check the oil level. Sometimes if the inlet manifold gasket has gone water can get into the sump.

Before stripping the engine I would also get the radiator pressure checked, it could be a pin hole leak that is not obvious.

If you don't want to strip anything you could try a good quality Radweld first.

[AndyP]

Thanks Allen, the oil is fine so that's good I suppose. I will have a look for a leak on Sunday as I'm out tomorrow all day.

[Anaconda]

3 litres of water in 20 miles is a lot of water, remember if you fill the rad to the top it will only throw it out of the overflow when it gets up to temp. That amount of water coming out of a heater leak would be obvious.

[AndyP]

It was 1 ltr after the 20 miles, I have put in 2 or 3 ltrs in over 50 miles or so. But even 1 ltr is an unexplained loss.

[Anaconda]

Do you fill the rad to the brim? If so it will just push it out of the overflow, happy level seems to be just above the cooling fins on my car.

[AndyP]

Ah, maybe that's the problem, I will only fill it over the fins from now on and see if I still need to add as much water to stay at that level.

[Anaconda]

It won't hurt to overfill it, it should then find its own correct level which it will stay steady at.

[ALLAN R]

My car has an annoying habit of chucking water out sometimes and the level it seems happiest with is just covering the fins.

[rider]

You might want to look into fitting an expansion tank. My 289 drops the water level to the just below the grate in the radiator and then will take a lot of water to fill back up to the neck and then after a drive its back to the grate level. Which is the correct fill level without the luxury of having an expansion tank. There is plenty of room to add an expansion tank especially if there is no power steering pump in the area. Often thought of fitting one myself but all I've done so far is think about it.

[ALLAN R]

This is what I fitted about a year ago that has stopped the issue. My car would only spit out its water sporadically and entirely unpredictably. A typical scenario would be stopping after a run. The engine would not be hot, if anything a bit below normal, and then within about 5 minutes water would stream from the rad overflow hose and it would lose about a pint of water. I don't know why it should do this but I have noticed that a lot of modern cars have the fan running after the ignition has been switched off so maybe its heat soak from the hot engine block.

[rider]

You can buy the Scotch Drake aluminum 'recovery tanks' as they call them (C5ZZ-8C077-AL). I'd rather go for a white plastic expansion tank though so you can actually see the coolant level without having to go look for it. That why its taken me a while to get around to finding and fitting something suitable, coupled to the fact my engine runs on the cool side of the gauge anyway.

[AndyP]

O/K been out today driving for 4 or so hours mostly around town, the temp has been very good usually staying on 1/4 level.

I've been home for a couple of hours so its cooled down, I've had a look at the water level, its taken about 1/2 ltr to bring it over the fins, so sounds like this is the level it likes. I'm now thinking the expansion bottle is the right way to go to keep the level up a bit? Oh and yes there was some water on the front cross member that had came from the overflow pipe that comes from the rad cap.