I noticed last week there was the smell of antifreeze when i was driving so i had a look and saw quite a good steady drip of it coming from what looked like the water pump. It was right at the connection of the pump and hose. Hose on snug, squeezed to see it if it would leak faster and nothing. So i left the car alone until yesterday. Went out to see if it had leaked while sitting. Nothing which i figured so i gave checked the hose again and it didn't leak. Thought i'd start it because when i did it before it started leaking right away. Got it running, no leak. Took it out around town for a couple errands, looked under the hood and nothing. So i let the car get warmed up and returned home to check once more and still dry as a bone. I don't quite understand it but it stopped leaking...for now.
Hopefully it is a hose or connection but w/ the intermittent thing, it sounds like it's probably the pump itself that needs replacement?. Sometimes these leak out the weeper hole and the coolant runs down the casting so it looks like it's a hose but if you can pressure test the system, it should stream out the trouble area!.
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I like real cars best...especially the REAL real ones! ----------------------------------------------------------------
I can't tell you how many times I've had guys at the parts counter wanting to buy a lower rad hose for a small block. I try to tell them very nicely that 99 out of a 100 times it's the pump. Usually they argue with me and end up coming back for a pump! It's not impossible that it's the hose but likely you will end up changing the pump in the end. It's not a bad job to do, and relatively cheap too. Small block pumps leaking is very very common.
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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars (now converted to a "factory" 4 speed)
I wasn't satisfied with the hose having stopped leaking. I knew it was something else, probably being the water pump. Now i'm not sure. I thought i'd try a temporary remedy and put in some bars leak. So i put it in, ran the car and no leak around the hose or anywhere under the engine bay. However i do have a pretty good leak now back at the cat. converter on the passenger side, basically under the footwell. I haven't had a chance to get the car on the jack stands to see where it's coming exactly from though. I have a strange feeling it's going to be a lot of tearing apart to fix. Any thoughts?
Thanks Earl, i hope to get a look on a free day soon. I'll ask my father in law to help me with it. Until it gets fixed the car is stuck in the garage. Figures it would be in some of the nicest weather too eh!!
