Where's the anti-freeze going?

[JJuday]

My friend has an '89 W250 and he told me that when he stops after driving around town and back and forth to work he can smell a faint wiff of burnt anti-freeze coming from his truck. He also said that his oil smelled like burnt anti-freeze also, but when I checked it I didn't notice anything out of place. Some guy he knows seems to think that it is the head gasket, but I think he might have a small leak and it may be blowing on to the exhaust. I don't have the truck in front of me like he has so I can't even answer many of my own questions. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[DMosher]

Mine leaked on the heater hose going into the cab. There is a metal thing on the heater hose ( can't think of what it is called) with a small vacum hose attached to it. It would leak a little anti freeze onto the exhust manifold. I replaced it with a napa one and no more leak. Let me know if that might be it and I will dig up the napa # for the thing.



Doug

 

[JFaughn]

Either go to a shop or buy a pressure tester , pumps air pressure into the cooling system [15-20lbs] then look for leaks , hot & cold , the part that DMosher sounds like the vacume valve that lets the coolant into the heater core, that cominly leaks.

 

[JJuday]

Thanks, I'll let Joe know tommorow. A cooling system leak was my guess from the start, but sometimes the best method is to preasure wash the engine compartment and check routinely from there.