I've been down here in good 'ol Savannah for 4 months now. No emissions laws are fantastic. I've been daily driving my S and loving every second. However, the car is losing coolant somehow. I pour a little in the reservoir each morning and drive to school. Then I drive home, and the next morning it is lower. I've been adding coolant like this for a few months now, so it has to be going somewhere. I checked my plugs and they look pretty clean ( I am purposefully running a bit rich so they're a tad dirty). My coolant temps stay for the most part b/t 3 and 4 bars on my Modifry temp gauge, however, sometimes I'll get 5 bars for a little bit when sitting.
Next up, this morning on the way in, the temp was up a bit to 4 bars and when I stopped at a light, my oil light flashed for about a second. It didn't stay on for more than a second, so I kept driving normally. I got on the highway, redlined 3rd (because coffee doesn't wake me up at 5am like it used to) and took the first exit to school. I hit a red light and it flashed on again. I got scared but it turned off just as quickly as the first time. This has happened once before whil sitting at a Wendy's drive-through. I don't have an oil temp. gauge. Is this from my oil getting too hot and thin and not pressurizing the system for a second? I got gas yesterday, and checked my oil and it was plenty full on the dipstick. Thanks folks.

 

BTW I'm running Redline 10W30 and I have a Mugen baffled pan if that stuff matters.

 

Where do you think you lost your coolant? If it's not leaking out, you've been running this engine for four months, then you're burning it or putting it into the crankcase possibly diluting the oil. Have to assume on the Laskey block rod and main clearances as well as pump clearances are correct.

 

Can you explain further? I'm not very technically savvy. Thanks.

 

if you can't find a visible leak from the coolant system, the coolant is being either burnt or consumed by the engine. I would recommend you do a oil analysis of the current oil. That would give you a good idea of if there is coolant in the oil. Coolant does a good job of washing off oil and increasing wear on bearings and cylinder walls so the oil analysis should show increased copper and metal wear.

 

Crap. What would cause the coolant to be consumed by the engine? Headgasket?

 

You should probably run 10w40 oil, it has better viscosity on the hot side. That's the difference between w30 and 40 and the 10 is the cold side viscosity.

First, check to make sure that you're not leaking any coolant at all outside the engine. Can you smell it when the engine is hot? If not, you're probably leaking inside the engine somewhere and you will definitely need to do an oil analysis to confirm this and find out for sure what is going on. It could be a blown gasket between two cylinders or a small crack in the head.

 

I took some pictures and sent them to my mechanic in Atlanta and he thinks that the oil sending unit wire melted. Hopefully, that's all it is, but I'm at school all frickin day and night (med school sucks) and I wont be able to get home till late tonite to find out. Oil analysis for sure will be done. Thanks fellas for your help.

 

JBot,

Check your oil...if it looks like chocolate milk, not as dark as it should and has a foaminess to it, then you may have a cracked head gasket. Does the car blow white smoke when it's cold or when you get into boost? Is it possible that you're so hot down in Savannah that your overflow tank is dumping the excess coolant and you keep refilling it?

Also, I'm assuming you're not pouring straight coolant into the radiator...you are mixing it with water, right?

 

I do mix it with water. Where would the coolant dump to? The oil looks dark, not foamy or milky. I found the oil pressure sending unit, and the wire attached to it is melted a little bit through the black to the blue part. I am hoping that is my problem. I had a make-shift heat shield on there that I think may have rubbed the insulation off the wire or the heat melted it. Either way, I don't have the time to check it till after this stupid stupid test. I'll take pictures and post them this weekend when I get a sec or sober up after my test is over. Thanks for the replies.