My truck leaks antifreeze internally, and i need to find which cylinder it's leaking into. How can I find out?

Question

My truck is a 1988 chevy silverado, great truck, has over 200k miles on it, so she's kinda gettin tired. The engine needs rebuilt or replaced no doubt, but I'm just gunna keep drivin it till she drops. The thing is, it leaks antifreeze very badly internally, and I'm 95% sure it's a head gasket or cracked block; my question is how do I find the cylinder that the antifreeze is leaking into? I bought some Bars Leaks Sealer, I have to drain the coolant and mix this stuff with water and run it thru the system, and do this continuously for a while, but they suggest finding the cylinder that it's leaking in, and disconnect the sparkplug, so that cylinder won't fire, so it will let the leak sealer work in the crack better, but that's the problem, how do I find which cylinder it's leaking into? Any input is greatly appreciated!!Thanks!!

Answer 1

Continue running that engine with leak of antifreeze, will wreck all bearings, an other parts. as the antifreeze washes the oil from everything, that is in need of lube. OK

Answer 2

Take each spark plug out and perform a compression check on each cylinder using a compression gauge available at most auto parts stores. The bars leaks might work, but usually will clog other smaller water jackets in the engine block and heads and may lead to overheating problems. It would probably be less time consuming and cheaper to just replace the head gasket.

Answer 3

enable's inspect some issues. a million. in no way spend $a million,500 on a automobile that's well worth approximately $2,000. 2. this is authentic that if coolant leaks into the cylinders a steam explosion will bend the connecting rod and the engine will then render the vehicle well worth lots decrease than $2,000. 3. The cylinder head gasket needs to get replaced to provide up coolant from leaking into the cylinders. 4. do not force the vehicle or perhaps initiate the engine till the issue is repaired. If this is too high priced to repair (attempt to get numerous estimates) sell it previously this is valueless. i comprehend those issues for the reason that's what occurred to my Ford F-a hundred and fifty. This grew to become right into a producer illness and grew to become into corroborated by ability of 1000's of alternative victims (on a internet site - google it) who offered 1997-ninety 8 Ford F-a hundred and fifty 6-cylinder vans. appropriate of success.

Answer 4

If you remove each spark plug, and inspect it, you will see a green funk growing on the one or two that are eating the antifreeze. If the engine is warm enough, you might even see steam out of the bad cylinders

Answer 5

pull all spark plugs and crank the engine over a few times this will push the water out of the cylinder. now as far as cause for this problem. I highly doubt unless you have completely over heated or raced the hell out of the engine that you have a cracked cylinder wall. for the correct easy way to fix your truck park it and pull the cylinder heads, get them machined, new valve job at the sme time.or go to a cylinder head shop and trade for rebuilt ones. may cost upwards of 350bucks tops. and that should fix your problem.

Answer 6

Pull the plugs, check them out. The bad cylinder will either have a weirdly clean plug or it will be the burned up one.

Answer 7

If it's not leaking bad enough to wet the plug it will be the clean one.

Answer 8

Pull each spark plug, and see which ones are wet.

Answer 9

Look at your spark-plugs, they are your window to the inside of your motor.