TS 4 cylinder, disappearing coolant.
No external leaks or internal from the heater core, had a pressure test done confirming no leaks.
No oil in coolant and no coolant in oil but need to fill the overflow bottle every 80/100km's.
Some bubbles coming up the radiator and noticed water in the exhaust just today but could be condensation, (or am I kidding myself) but not white smoke.
Have tried stuff in the radiator and it made no difference.
Suspect a cracked head or gasket over the exhaust and the coolant is going out the exhaust, hence no water or oil contamination, got a quote of $800/$1000 seems a bit pricey, anyone know a ball park figure for reconditioning and fitting a head?
Does that price seem about right?

Mate, drive over here for a weekend and we will fix you all up.

Would be a shame if that head is cactus as was off a low mileage car.

I can get you a M7 for around 100 bucks, head work and gaskets collant and oil around 300 ish, fitting free for for old times sake lol

Mate, drive over here for a weekend and we will fix you all up.

Would be a shame if that head is cactus as was off a low mileage car.

I can get you a M7 for around 100 bucks, head work and gaskets collant and oil around 300 ish, fitting free for for old times sake lol

Aren't M9's better lol
Don't think it could make the distance, bit risky, don't know how much coolant would get lost at speed, would be stopping every half hour to check lol

To be honest, if you can get a week with warm up and cool down, I do not think that you would have too many issues if you took it easy.

Yup, but they are rare as to get.

I would still be very surprised if the head is cracked, get them to check things like the seal on the Throttle Body air valve, the hoses to the throttle body, heater hoses etc.

Better still, go somewhere they can to a proper monoxide test, this will tell you 100% if there is an issue there

To be honest, if you can get a week with warm up and cool down, I do not think that you would have too many issues if you took it easy.

Yup, but they are rare as to get.

I would still be very surprised if the head is cracked, get them to check things like the seal on the Throttle Body air valve, the hoses to the throttle body, heater hoses etc.

Better still, go somewhere they can to a proper monoxide test, this will tell you 100% if there is an issue there

Cheers, will ring around tomorrow

I would double check, on a warm day and after a fair drive to see if there really is smoke and not condensatino out of the exhaust. I also think sometimes it looks like there is bubbles in the radiator because the water is pumping and flowing around and kinda of hard to tell. Mine ended up being the water pump, so really check around the whole engine and timing belt to see if you see any coolant leaking.

Would suck to do all that work if thats not the problem...

Ollie

It is not smoke.

A little history, he had a timing chain fitted a while back, was a very bad job and the end result was most of the guides ending up in the sump, blocked oil filter which lead to complete rebuild. Motor would not have done 15k since then.

We used the head off the motor, had to work on the cam journels as they were damaged other than that the head tested really well.

Symptoms say cracked head, but would like to see this put to the test before throwing out a good late model head!

Looks as if you were right Mal the head checked out okay, mechanic said there was evidence of the head gasket leaking so will have to wait till it's back together and see what happens. (his words)
He did ask why a M9 is better than a M7, does it just flow better or is it valves?

So did you find out your problem? I didn't make a lot of sense out of your last post haha, but if it is a cracked head I can reccommend a good place around here to get it done if you aren't gonna get madmagna to help ya with it...

By the looks of it tho if its just the gasket gone according to your mechanic, hopefully you'll be OK now anyway. Good luck with it all mate.

(oh and the price you said in the first post seemed pretty accurate to me, I know people who have paid more to get a rocon'd head. When I got my head done it cost about $500 including a valve grind and all the gaskets, because we took out the head and took it to him, saving him a lot of time I suppose haha)

I thought the post was quite clear, the head has checked out ok and head gasket was leaking

What I would like to know is why :) Were you having issues with heat during summer or was that idle? My memory is not what it was long ago lol

The main thing with the M7 and M9 is the M9 is newer, they are almost identical, just in theory will be better alloy used etc. From memory ports and combustion chamber are same.

What I would like to know is why :) Were you having issues with heat during summer or was that idle? My memory is not what it was long ago lol
Got the car back tonight.
Never had heat issues but did have an idle issue a while back, had to turn the screw 2 full turns anti clockwise to get it to idle, did replace the oxygen sensor a few weeks prior so that might have been the reason.
After 250,000km on the original sensor maybe it needed binned, car did return better fuel economy after a few weeks.
Cost of the head job:badgrin: was $998 so hopefully it was a leaking head gasket and the problem is solved, time will tell

The woes continue.:angry:
Got the car back last week with just water in the radiator, problem seemed fixed, initially lost some and then it settled down okay ran it for more than 1000km
Mechanic wanted it back to re torque the head, drain the water and fill with coolant.
Did that at an extra cost of $140!!!!
Before I went to work this morning I checked the level in the radiator was full and the overflow bottle was filled to the max line, now the car is stone cold the water line is below the minimum level on the bottle and that loss was in 50km
Total cost so far $1200 and still losing coolant, and the bottle isn't split as i've had it sitting full overnight on tissue paper
Arrggghhhhhhhh

Has the water pump ever been replaced?

Mate, I can not understand why he would retorque a monotorque head gasket!!!!

He may have done damage here and whats more, why the hell put only water in the engine!!!

You need to pressure test the system, also check your rad cap etc

Will put him on notice on Monday that there's still a problem and will start to measure the coolant needed in regards to mileage.
I was a bit concerned the re-torque was a rip off because you didn't need to do it when you built the motor, also suspect he has done an oil change because the oil feels different and has a reddish tinge to it and as I always use Penrite 15 it's either changed or an additive, plus it was only 3000km old!!
I was to run the car for 500/800km on water to check everything was okay, but me being a cynic my immediate thought at the time was he had black pepper or something in the radiator and that was why he needed it back to flush it out.
It's been pressure tested by 2 different people and there's no leaks they can find and I changed the radiator cap when all this started to the exact same brand you initially gave me.
Will also speak to the RAA legal Dept and find out my rights prior to speaking to him again.

Bit of an update if anyone has any ideas.
Still losing coolant at an alarming rate, head has been checked and new gasket fitted.
No bubbles in radiator but steam and water (a fair amount) coming out the exhaust so I reckon that has to be where the coolant is going.
If the head is not cracked (and it's been tested to confirm it's not) and there's no bubbles in the rad, am I looking at a cracked block and that's where the coolant is going and out through the exhaust as water and steam??

if that was the case, you should notice white vapour from the tailpipe when engine is warmed up. Definately no damp spots around the bay or under the car after its parked up?
Could be a hairline split in a hose that only leaks when warmed up/under pressure

Mate, I can not understand why he would retorque a monotorque head gasket!!!!
Asked him that question tonight, he said he's been doing it for years because sometimes the head comes down a bit more, in my case the centre bolts were okay but the end ones came down.....I suppose he's doing the warranty!!
Seems there's a tiny leak from the water pump (not enough to be the problem) so I will go to Mitsu tomorrow and make a warranty claim on it as I only bought it about 4/5 weeks ago when this trouble arose.
Mechanic also reminded me he had told me previously he saw "something" over an exhaust port and told the testers about this but it still came back as okay.
Apparently they did a hot water test and not an x-ray (I thought they would have, but what do I know!!)
The mechanic was really good about things so not expecting any dramas, as long as it gets fixed at no extra cost to me.

I personally think that you have a crack between the water jacket and the exhaust port.

He needed to change the oil when the head gasket was done as there is risk of contamination etc when you clean everything up.

If the head was pressure tested, it may not have shown up, it a real prick to diagnose to be honest as these sometimes only do this when hot. Some GOOD shops will warm up the head and then pressure test.

Wish I was still over there so I could just fix this once and for all for you lol