Crack Block ?

[Barry Nave]

Loosing coolent. Say a crack block. Eng run as normal so would fluid get in to the oil?
What would be a CK to see if water is in the oil?
I don,t see the oil level going up as much as I'm loosing water.

[sbigos]

Bnave95
This might seem kind of obvious, but if the crack happened on the outside of the block you should see an external leak. A leak inside the block will leak water into the oil and the oil will turn milky white or grey and get real sludgy. A radiator pressure tester, hand pumped type, might be a good investment for you.
Check that water hose fitting on the top right side forward on the engine. Mine had a pinhole leak at about 100k miles and sprayed an almost invisible mist of coolant.
On your question of cracked heads, I have seen many gas marine engines with cracked heads that showed very little affect on engine operation, other than coolant loss and engine freeze up. You can buy a kit at the autoparts that tests your coolant for combustion gases. Never used one but it may help. Good luck.

[tom.mcinerney]

Thermo housing can weep coolant; the small hose from it to water pump can leak at connections. Head gaskets can leak as often as block crack. The heads themselves are prone to cracks thru the valve seats(esp between in/ex valves) which can extend to water jacket, causing coolent loss to combustion chamber. Jim Bigley found a way to cure the problem, at least for 40K Miles or so. See members reference area 'heads' or search here for heads, cracks.

[ 01-19-2004, 03:30 PM: Message edited by: tom mac 95 ]