Best thing to do is clean the engine compartment really well with Gunk Foamy Engine Bright. Pay close attention to ALL hoses and fittings. Smell of coolant in the car with the heat on full blast could indicate heater core, BUT you would most likely see and smell coolant on lower settings of heat also. Remember the heater/AC system draws air from the COWL area. Smells from a leaking hose etc. can be sucked in. While the blower is on max it will suck the MOST air from under the hood.

After cleaning the engine compartment take a drive. Long enough to make sure all the water from cleaning is dried up. You should be able to see a leak pretty easily at that point. Then you can pressure test the system. One easy way to pressure test yourself is to remove the line from the resevoir to the top of outlet on the head. (smaller like 3/8" line) Plug the outlet on the resevoir with a small pice of hose and a bolt and hose clamp. Then with an air compressor or bicycle pump put about 7 or 8 lbs into the system.

BE CAREFUL NOT MORE THAN 1/2 BAR or 7 - 8PSI!! Any leak should show up right away.

 

When you see it dripping that is whats slipping past the seal between the core and the box.
There is more coolant in the box than what you see coming out.

If you disconnect the lines at the core under the hood get the new seal and clip kit for the heater hoses.

 

tech.. sweet, ordered that from FCP already..... regarding the oil cooler lines, i see on the FCP site a oil cooler clamp kit... do i need that also?

one more... what else feed into the radiator for cooling? the obvious 2 are the upper and lower rad lines, and the oil cooler lines..... do the tranny cooler lines go int othe rad also?

1998.... thanks for that info.... i belive its leaking in multiple places now.... so imma start replacing!

 

oops

 

I think that is the clamps for the line at the radiator I would get them to be safe sometimes the clamps will break.

Yes the tranny lines attach as well.

 

i guess now would be a good time to do a complete tranny swap huh?

 

Maybe if yours is bad.

 

the last owner says he swapped to mobil1 ATF (sythetic) Appx 2 years ago.... but im getting a clunk shifting in and out of Reverse.... ? yucky.

 

Is the upper torque mount bad?

 

if that is the clearly visible mount that attatches to the firewall.... then its brand spankin new.... and the pass side one as well... the only one that hasnt been recently replaced is the driverside/lower one.

 

Need some quick help........... just picked up this radiator from NAPA.... never heard of the brand "modine" my car has an Auto trans.... question is, dont the trans cooler lines attatch to the rad? this radiator has only coolant hoses and oil cooler hoses.... see photos

 

Yes if it is turbo it should have 4 fittings.

 

yeah, its turbo.... so this one is going back!

Thanks Tech!

 

**** UPDATE*****

so far this car has been a breeze to wrench on, and it keeps getting better...

Ive replaced the heater core, i took about 20 minutes... thanks to some links posted by fellow members it was even easier then they said!

Side note... FCP sells a kit descirbed as " seal kit for where hoses go into heater core" it has some yellow clips and rubber seals... These were not needed... now sure why they are advertized as such. The only thing i felt neccesary to replace was the 2 rubber grommets on the hoses, that seals the hoses to the core housing.

Now on to the radiator replacement!

 

I would have replaced them to be safe.
I have seen those hoses blow out and burn motors up.

 

yeah.. i did that.. using the rubber seals from the kit.. they were exact matches.... and so far the cabin lacks the coolant smell... so far so good...

IS it possible that coolant can be leaking into the engine block? I will be replacing the radiator on monday.. with the new Nissens one i got... (which i saw elsewhere someone was asking where those come from, i found out Denmark) At that point ill know if my coolant loss is finished for good... ALSO.... once the heater core was replaced, the "topping off" of the resivour has been less frequent. So thats a good sign.

What happened to JPN? havent seen him post in a while....

 

If coolant was leaking into the block you would have a blown headgasket.

Where did you get the Nissens from?
Our supplier says he can't get us those anymore. They are the best replacements out there.

 

My Nissens rad, i got from Eeuroparts... FREE SHIPPING ! I paid $209

Rad is in and finished... so far so good... topped up the coolant after driving it a few times... one weird thing was, as you know, i replaced the radiator and put in new oil cooler lines... and brand new seals, but the top oil line was leaking like a seive. dripping like crazy. WEIRD. anyway, i doubled up the clear seal, using an old one off the old line as a temp fix... but anyone know a better fix? brand new fittings. strange.

next project... PS rack.

 

Maybe the new clear seal was deformed?

 

This is a bit too late to add, but Modine isthe OEMfor Ohio-built Honda.


JPN