LUVTruck.com

While doing a routine carb cleaning, I revved the engine to about 3K. While standing there, I noticed the truck started squirting coolant out from just in front of the starter, a stream about the size of a pencil lead. My first thought was a freeze plug, but I just shut it down, let it cool and moved it to it's spot on the gravel. Still leaking when I shut it down the 2nd time, lost maybe a quart in 3-5 minutes of running.

Is the intake water cooled on this truck? Freeze plug? Head gasket (I'm not sure I've ever seen one 'go' with an external leak). I'm still waiting on my manual, so I'm pretty clueless except what I can decipher externally.

I'll post a pic with it running, briefly, but I'm not going to risk getting my camera full of fluid, or toasting the head, so it will be from the top...

Help? Anyone got a decent G180 laying around? Or should I part this thing and buy another one? Any LUV'ers in the NW want to come take a look see?

If you look at the front of the cylinder head there will be a hose that routes back to a T fitting on the bottom of the intake just above the starter. That hose might be the problem you are looking for.

_________________
1975 V8 Luv
1980 Bagged Luv

I started it back up and checked by feel, but just couldn't seem to locate the leak. The hose you mention appears dry along it's entire length, but there may be a split on the back I couldn't reach. I'll just have to get it up in the air and take a look.

Funny, the carb cleaning was in preparation to take it over to the car wash with a can of Gunk for the engine bay. Ack...now I get to mess with it with 30 years of oil & dirt caked on everything.

Did someone say 'project'?

Dan is right, there is a tee where two of the coolant hoses attach under the intake. This would be the first place you should check for a leak in that general area. The hose that routes around to the front of the cylinder head is called the bypass hose, and I had to replace mine.

It was part #19644 and cost me $9.73 plus $7.05 shipping, from RockAuto.com.

If it's the other hose, then you're going to have to ask someone else, as I still am using the one that came on the LUV.

I also had a water leak from using the wrong gasket on the intake manifold. For your case, it doesn't seem that you removed the intake.


Here is a not-so-great photo taken of my head upside down, with the intake manifold still attached. You can see the two hose clamps holding those two hoses onto a tee. There's where you should find the leak. The second photo is from the first time I removed the head. Because of the difficulty in removing the EGR tube, I just removed it all together. I was able to get the EGR tube out of the exhaust manifold later, but I never got it out of the intake manifold to this day. That EGR tube must be removed from either the exhaust or the intake before the intake manifold can be removed from the cylinder head.

_________________
'78 1.8L 4-speed Fleetside

The only thing more beautiful than a sunset is a sunrise.

Where does the other hose go? Do you know the I/D of the hose? I could patch something in if I have to. Excellent pic, thanks! I really had no idea what I was reaching for earlier. Is the T tapped into the manifold? Is there an easy way to get at it? I sure can't see it from up top...

and i almost bought that truck... any way best way is to take it off and make sure no crack in the intake on the bottom... if you need one i have one

_________________
My old but now gone Luv...

Threw on a wrecked shirt and went out with a flashlight and crawled around underneath. Still can't see this T fitting, but it certainly looks like the coolant is coming from that general area.

When I bought the truck, it was about a 1/2 gallon low on coolant. That's what I get for filling it up. hahha...

If I can't find a hose problem, I'll try to pressure check the cooling system and see if I can find a crack in the manifold. Are they a pain to swap?

not to bad takes about 10/30 min depending on the person

_________________
My old but now gone Luv...

I had a manidold that the tee itself had a hole from corrosion that caused a leak. Don't be suprised if its leaking....

Yes they are a pain down where the sun don't shine and you have hoses galore to cope with. If you have several different types of wrenches you will make the job much easier. I have another photo for ya. This one is of the hose routing placement. I couldn't read the sticker on the hood well, but I found that when I took a photo of it and resized it, then added some special effects I was able to get a real easy-to-follow drawing.

I had to remove the thermostat/radiator hose to remove the carb, then remove the hoses and the intake. The second hose on the tee goes to the heater core. Yes it is connected to the intake manifold. Coolant flows through the head and through the manifold. The water temperature sensor is on the intake manifold. There is also a thermal vacuum valve connected to the water galley on the front of the intake that has two hoses attached. I had trouble keeping mine intact, and broke it twice. Repaired it twice.

If Ctmandu offers you a helping hand, man, take it. He is one of the nicest people you'll ever meet.

A tip: Try using a small mirror just to eyeball the area. I even used it to do the work.





Click on the first photo, then right-click and save it to your computer. Then print it out on a full sheet of printer paper, and tack it up in your shop!!

_________________
'78 1.8L 4-speed Fleetside

The only thing more beautiful than a sunset is a sunrise.

OOPs the first pic in your photos shows the hose layout of the smog pump.

_________________
1978 pro street step/side 455Buick, 4sp,4.11s, 31/18.5s

Why oops? The photo is a valuble diagram of the hose routing information, not only the air pump and the air bypass valve, but also of all the vacuum hoses and air lines. This photo clearly illustrates and answers questions to those who don't have the answers as to where the various tubes should be connected.

All you old timers on LUV truck dot com might not need this, but I needed it before, and the sticker on the hood was very hard to follow, so this is a good thing, not an oops.

_________________
'78 1.8L 4-speed Fleetside

The only thing more beautiful than a sunset is a sunrise.

OOps my mistake,I thought you posted it to help with the coolant problem other wise job well done.

_________________
1978 pro street step/side 455Buick, 4sp,4.11s, 31/18.5s

Oh, I see why it was a little off. Yes, I was trying to help with the coolant problem by identifying the hoses in the general area of the intake manifold. If Nukeday does anything at all he will need to know where to replace the hoses.

I realize the air hoses are not the coolant hoses, but I didn't realize that was your point. Good feedback, TJ.

_________________
'78 1.8L 4-speed Fleetside

The only thing more beautiful than a sunset is a sunrise.

Got my series 10 manual today, but had no time to work on the truck. I'll look the manual over, along with the awesome information here, in the next day or two.

I'm going to bed and into 'work mode', so I've got 3 days of 13 hour night shifts to do... Don't have time for much else with that schedule....

Updates to come as I get to work...Thanks everyone!

PS - Looks like ctmandu and I will be getting together Sunday sometime for a parts exchange, and maybe a little 'tutoring session'...

If you go 33 miles north, and Ctmandu heads 33 miles south, then you've got yourselves a little rendezvous!!! I hope you two have a good meeting.

Here's Catman at my place...

_________________
'78 1.8L 4-speed Fleetside

The only thing more beautiful than a sunset is a sunrise.

Update!

I worked about 13 hours last night, came home and slept about an hour and half and began working on the truck when ctman arrived. I'm pretty much exhausted, but wanted to let everyone know the outcome on my blown-up-sumpin'....

ctmandu and mrs. ctmandu came down to swap a step bumper for my visor. Well that was the initial plan anyway. We sort of figured an hour or two to sort out the leaking hose and then get the visor off, and maybe mount the bumper.

What we discovered is that Mickey Mouse does in fact do automotive work. As catman tore into my intake to ease access to the plumbing, we began to discover all sorts of poor workmanship, and sloppy shortcuts. The truck still has all the stock smog stuff, and this slowed things down also. When the intake manifold was finally off, some poking around in the suspect area led to the discovery of a rotten freeze plug back by the starter. Out it came, along with a lot of gunk and rust and crap. ctman also pointed out that the intake gasket still had a couple of plugs in it blocking coolant flow between the intake and the block. We all pretty much agreed that the cooling system has had nothing but water in it for several years. Well this is about 3 hours after we started, and ctman had brought several intakes and hoses and so forth. I finally suggested that the two of them take a break for lunch, because I also had a guy here from 2 1/2 hours away looking at another vehicle I have for sale. He was exhaustively thorough and even did a compression check before handing over any money and confirming his decision. So while the ctman crew went to eat, I bent and plugged the smog fitting in the exhaust manifold, and started removing the carb and pieces from my intake. When they returned, we went to the parts store to get some new hoses, a freeze plug, new clamps, etc. We returned and had a little over an hour of light left to try to get it all back together. By this time, I'm pretty much in zone land, so ctman was sort of giving me direction while he and his wife removed the visor. I got some of the intake back together, but couldn't get the freeze plug started. I was ready to give up and go inside and go to bed, but ctman got it started with a little ingenuity and let me finish it. He then proceeded in record time to reinstall the intake and fab some hoses from various new hoses and fittings we'd bought. The three of us made quite a team, even if I was the 'weakest link'...hahaha...Filled the radiator, and fired it up. One little leak at the T fitting under the intake, and a little at the thermostat housing. Tightened that stuff up and voila, I had a running truck!

So, a HUGE thank you to ctmandu and mrs catmandu!!!! His truck is pretty awesome in person, and they are really unpretentious, down to earth people. They basically donated their entire Sunday afternoon to me and my truck, for not much more than a lunch and a bit of gas money. That's pretty rare these days, and he knows his stuff. If the truck wasn't such a mess to start with, it would have taken half the time, but they stuck with me until they saw it run...

Got a feeling we'll be seeing quite a bit more of each other over the summer. Hopefully at some point I'll be able to repay them with some rare unobtanium LUV item...

Now...where's my pickle fork...

Yea we sorta figured a couple of hours too, just fix a hose or two and off we would go. And man those hoses were BAD. I am still not sure if that was a fish hook that came out of the water jacket because it looked like one. I don't know what Mickey Mouse was fishing for but he lost his hook on a big one. We are glad we could help. We are glad we could get another Luv on the road, and the motor really does sound nice. It was nice meeting you, the wife, and kids. Hopefully we will see you soon. All and all it was a stress releaver for me and a break from the kids for mrs. ctmandu. It was no big deal really, but you are welcome and we enjoyed ourselves.

_________________
My old but now gone Luv...

_________________
If you think no one cares, try missing a couple of payments...



FIAA!

SFPP!

I told you Catman was a great guy. I owe him too, and more than you Nukeday! I'm happy you all had a good time, and good for you getting the LUV running! I told you that intake was tough, huh? Three hours!!! Ha ha, it sounds like y'all got yer hands dirty!!

Congratulations on having a great day.

_________________
'78 1.8L 4-speed Fleetside

The only thing more beautiful than a sunset is a sunrise.