Coolant Leak

[L1011tristar17]

89 Town Car. New lower intake manifold gaskets. New-ish EGR coolant hoses. When filling the radiator back up with coolant there's a leak towards the back of the engine, more on the driver's side. I can't see where the coolant is coming from, but it dribbles down near where the engine connects to the transmission. I checked the EGR coolant hoses and they seemed to be hooked up. Same with the heater core hoses. What else could be the problem?

[L1011tristar17]

There is also white smoke coming out of the exhaust, which isn't a good sign

[91waggin]

Make sure it's actually white smoke and not steam. My wagon makes the most condensation of any car I've ever seen out of the exhaust when the engine's cold and it's cold out. Does the exhaust smell sweet?

Just wanted to make sure you're not chasing a symptom that isn't actually a symptom.

[L1011tristar17]

I did smell a trace of antifreeze in the exhaust. It was coming thicker out of one pipe than the other. It looked like I was running seafoam through the intake. The oil also had a little bit of a light colored swirl on the dipstick. I plan on having it towed to the shop because me trying to fix something usually makes something else worse.

[packman]

When it's cold and humid out, the lopo in the CV will pour steam out of the exhaust. And I get the milkshake oil as well. If your engine is stock (not rebuilt), it might not be getting warm enough to boil off condensation that forms in the valve covers. This is what I have observed with these cars.

And my Ranger, although doesn't have the milkshake oil, steams like an old steam engine in the cold weather as well. And I have very little heat coming out of the vents. It might be a Ford thing.



Packman

[91waggin]

I just re-read your OP. All you say about the heater hoses is they seem to be hooked up. That doesn't mean you don't have a pinhole leak in one of the heater hoses, which would definitely create a leak in the location you're looking at. Go rent a pressure tester from the parts store; that will create a gush where there's just a little stream most of the time and will make it really obvious where the leak is.

[porschpow]

Yeah, rent a pressure tester! I had the same issue on my town car. I replaced the egr coolant hoses and replaced the egr spacer gasket. At first , I noticed it was leaking from there (spacer, but I guess as the rtv cured, I re tightened the spacer and it seems to be ok, I know where you coming from. Get a pressure tester!

[L1011tristar17]

Went over to the shop earlier today and they confirmed that the leak was coming from the new gaskets. They had pumped water into the system and it was leaking from the corner (presumably where two gaskets meet). I'm waiting to hear back from them with an estimate, and they will need to change the oil as well (water in the oil). Hopefully the high idle problem will go away as well. They said that it all should be done by sometime tomorrow. If that's true, I couldn't ask for a better birthday present!

[L1011tristar17]

I just got off of the phone with the shop. Car is ready, although the idle is still high. I had this problem since after I put the JY intake and new gaskets on. The car idles fine with the IAC unplugged, although it will die at stop signs. They tried a new IAC and it didn't change anything. One of the sensors (I guess the coolant temp sensor) is bad on the JY intake, but I still have the original from my car so I will swap it over. Hopefully that will take care of the idle. TPS is fairly new as well. They also unclogged the heater core!

[marquisman]

Has anyone messed with the idle adjustment screw? I had a similar issue with my brothers '88 towny

[gadget73]

Is it not the original throttle body by chance? I remember having to fix a persistant high idle in a non-original throttle body by blocking off the air bleed hole in the new throttle body. The hole was larger than stock, and it let too much air through. I think we used a pop rivet but I won't swear to that.

The engine really shouldn't idle well with the IAC unplugged. It should idle maybe 500 rpm. If the stop screw is jacked out too far, it won't idle down enough for the IAC to control things correctly.

[L1011tristar17]

Where is the idle adjustment screw located?

It has idled high since the first time I replaced the intake gaskets. The guy who worked on my car told me that he swapped on a new IAC and it didn't change anything. It idles a bit low with the IAC unplugged but with it plugged in it idles extremely high.

Throttle body is original. It looked fairly clean to me when I looked at it today and I haven't messed with it much.

[L1011tristar17]

I also noticed that the brass tv bushing was put on upside down (still secured the throttle cable to the metal arm) so I fixed that. I also changed out two of the temperature sensors from the old lower intake onto the newer one. Neither of those things seemed to change the idle.

[gadget73]

Its not really an adjustment screw, its a throttle stop screw. If it idled normally before, and idles high now but you haven't moved it, then its probably not your issue. You most likely have a vacuum leak somewhere if it started this after changing the intake. Could be a hose, could be a gasket, you'll have to do some investigation. I'd probably start by pinching off the vacuum lines one by one that come off the intake (not the plastic ones, disconnect and plug the port for those) to see if shutting one off drops the vacuum. if it does, chase that out to find the leak. If the hoses themselves aren't in good shape, change them because they're likely cracked at the ends and possibly somewhere along the length as well. Make sure the bolts that secure the intake are properly torqued, same with the throttle body bolts. Also, there is that air temperature sensor in the lower intake runner on #5. If that was removed and not re-installed with thread sealer, or if the injector O rings were not replaced, those could be leak points too.

[L1011tristar17]

The guy who worked on my car told me that he ran smoke through the lines to look for leaks and didn't find any. I'll still check em out tomorrow. I replaced the Air Temp Sensor and Coolant Temp Sensor behind the T-Stat housing with the old ones from the previous manifold and sealed them with RTV. Do I need to let the computer reset after replacing the sensors?