Hey so for the past two weeks or so I have been getting this coolant smell every now and than. I will get a wiff and than it will be gone. I checked my coolant and it doesn't seem to be getting low ( I checked overflow and in radiator) so I assumed I was just being crazy. I had some free time and decided to take a closer look, checked around the inside fire wall, around the engines random little coolant lines and couldn't find anything. I decided to take out my spark plugs and have a look inside the cylinders and I noticed my spark plugs are a brown color almost like a rust color and on the top of the piston it looks a little wet, or damp. Im not sure if maybe its left over fuel or something, but its black in color and deffinately looks a little damp. any ideas? im hoping that dampness is not coolant leaking from my head gasket. I only took one picture of the spark plugs but they all looked about the same color.


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I forgot to mention some details that might help with possible diagnosis

spark plugs are ngk with less than 10xxx miles.
car has 132xxx miles
im inspecting the car because of a coolant smell, not because it has running problems, it runs like a champ even with the fouled plugs.
mods: k and N filter, plm headers, test pipe, comptech exhast.
passed smog 4 months ago without any problems.
I use 10w30 mobil 1. burns a little oil, during 3000 miles I will add around a quart. not all at one time of course, just a little here and there

 

if you decat your car it is sometimes smelly ! especially when standing still, and the your smelling the unburnd particels what normally your cattalic hold on.

 

yeah I have gotten used to the smell of no cat, this smell is forsure coolant. Im going to grab my coolant pressure tester from work and ill let you guys know what I find.

 

may have a radiator leak? check the fan temp switch drain plug cap ect.

make sure your bleeder screw by the throttle body is snug maybe crack it open and snug it up... check hoses and clamps.

 

the colour of your plugs is due to the additives in the fuel you use - depends on the fuel brand, not coolant IMO. Wetness of the pistons can just be unburned fuel or oil that drips down after shutdown.

Coolant smell can be from the rad cap or water pump, or a small leak from one of the hoses. The small hoses that go around the throttle body can often have small leaks as the clamps are not super-tight. Poke around with a bright flashlight and check all the hose areas and all areas around the engine and radiator and see if you can locate any wet spots or dried up green coloured stains.

 

If you were getting Coolant near spark plugs your exhaust would be really white all the time. Looks like crap additives like stated above.

 

thanks for the responses guys, I really appreciate it. For a little update, I pressure tested the car, did not find any leaks. Now that you mention it, I did use some kragen brand octane booster about 700 miles ago ( it was free) . And also, I used some lucas injector cleaner about 500 miles ago. Im planning on throwing in a new set of plugs Monday, ill probably do a compression and leak down test at that time too and post my results.

 

just to update you guys, I did a leak down test, passed with flying colors, compression tested : Cyl 1 215psi, cyl 2 215psi, cyl 3 215 psi, cyl4 210 psi. pretty good for 133xxx miles. (=