wheres my water going?

[pishta]

We have a New Yorker with a 3.0L and we think a head gasket is bad. I can put a gallon of water in and itll take all of it after about 3 days of driving, and I cant take it out for long or itll start to get hot. the motor purrs, and it has plenty of pep, with no noticeable steam coming from the exhaust. How hard is it to take both heads off, or a quick method to check a head gasket leak? No water in the oil, and I cant seem to see any bubbles in the coolant with th emotor running, although the view is bad. Thanks

[Dean Stillie]

It could also be leaking out of the water pump
It would tend to run rough and smoke if the head gaskets were gone, but not always.

[J-BODY]

Depending on the age and mileage could say whether this could be a head gasket prob. I would have a "block test" performed on the engine. This uses a tool that checks for exhaust gasses in the cooling system. From your brief description it does sound like a head gasket prob. If it were a water pump you can check for signs of leakage at the "drip hole" which is a slot on the lower part of the rear head on the back of the engine (near the power steering pump, or above I should say).

[tmef]

My 87 Turbo Le Baron had a similar problem. Ran fine and didn't over heat but was losing coolant. Showed no signs of oil in the coolant or coolant in the oil. It had a hairline crack in the cylinder sealing ring of the head gasket in the corner by #1 cylinder. It would blow steam out of the exhaust only on de-acceleration when vaccum was high. Sounds like you might have a similar problem. Good luck.

[pishta]

update on my cooling problems. It sure was a head gasket, actually it was both head gaskets. Front had a tear in the #3 going straight into a water passage, the #6 gasket actually seperated right in the metalic sealing ring. I dont know if this happened when I took it off or what, bue there was alot of discoloration in the area. so I get everything back together, bolted down and ready to go. Wont start..Ok timing order is whacked.The freakin cap is rerouted internally so #1 is not really where it picks up spark, you know? Anyway after figuring that out, im 180 out...starts up fine now but I have a LOUD tick. Sounds like the rocker arms are missing those little barrel shaped inserts, but they are all there. The oil holes line up and I got good pressure. What did I do wrong? It purred prior to the head gasket swap. Could the oil be so contaminated with water the hydraulic lashers are not pumping up? Looked good to me, no milk. And the exhaust gasket is new and torqued down.Thanks

[J-BODY]

Hard to make a call without hearing it, but my experience with the 3.0 is whenever the heads or even the valve train is removed after you put them back together they tend to tick and rattle like the lifters have mysteriously died, or fell out all together. If you are certain that you installed the followers correctly I would let it run. Sometimes you have to drive them quite awile until they quiet up. On one high miler I even changed the followers because they wouldn't quiet down. After the new ones all was ok. You did change the oil after you were done right?