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[Midnight Mower]

Hi all back after some years.

have Omega-B auto 2.5 1999 with considerable coolant leak

I have replaced the seals on the coolant bridge but the coolant spurts to rear from below the shelf supporting the dist. on lhs (passenger)

There are 2 metal pipe here above the bellhousing which go between the cylinder heads to the oil cooler? but don't appear to be culprit.  This is well below heater control valve and heater hoses, which are dry

Because of its location beside the bulge in the bulkhead for the pollen filter, it is nearly impossible to access.

I have pressurised the system at abt 2 bar and apparently can stop the leak with my finger pressed on a pipe or something.
It is a small single jet of water

Any suggestion?

[Kevin Wood]

The coolant transfer pipe (from the bottom radiator hose) enters the block down there and has an O ring seal which might have failed, I suppose.

It might be worth removing the wiper mechanism and all the hoses between the coolant bridge, HBV and heater matrix for a proper inspection.

Kevin

[Midnight Mower]

Hi Kevin

Thanks for the suggestion
I have already taken these off to get behind the engine

Do you know where I can obtain a detailed view of the rear of the engine without the hindrance of the wiring harnesses?

cheers

[Elite Pete]

There's a couple of core plugs behind the dis pack.

[Elite Pete]

There's a couple of core plugs behind the dis pack.

Forget that, i've just read your post completely about the hose

[Teebee]

Do you know where I can obtain a detailed view of the rear of the engine without the hindrance of the wiring harnesses?

While not ideal (and for the Catera) I find that GMPartsGiant has some useful diagrams.

[Kevin Wood]

Don't know whether these are any help:

http://www.omegaowners.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1181719948

The only pipes are the metal transfer pipe and the rubber hoses that come off the coolant bridge to the HBV and throttle body.

Could be a core plug, as said. head gaskets have also been known to leak coolant.

If you can put your finger on something and stop the flow is it possible from the pictures to work out what you've got your finger on? :-/

Kevin

[Midnight Mower]

Many Thanks TeeBee

the GMPartsGiant looks a very useful website.
I can see that the pipes I suspected carry the oil to the oil cooler between the cylinders.
I shall make some further investigations an reassemble the inlet manifold

While searching I noticed that the seals for the air breather which sits n the plenium are available from GMPartsGiant, but my GM  dealer tells me that they are not available separately here. Does anyone know if it is possible to obtain them in UK? The most useful would be the large seal which plugs the circular opening underneath.

[Teebee]

Re-reading the post Kevin has a point, if you can put your finger on the leak surely you can work out if it's a rubber hose leaking or a metal pipe?

If it's rubber just pull them all off and inspect them off the car.

[Midnight Mower]

A sad outcome. I managed at last to look at the rear of the engine with a small mirror. Under a pressure of 2 bar coolant is spurting out between the cylinder head & crank case.  This does explain why I have had 2 dises fail in the last 5 years because of corrosion damage.  Probably this weakness has existed for many years.  There is no sign of coolant in the engine oil which is something to be thankful

I am putting it all back together and will try some K Seal.

[Kevin Wood]

A sad outcome. I managed at last to look at the rear of the engine with a small mirror. Under a pressure of 2 bar coolant is spurting out between the cylinder head & crank case.  This does explain why I have had 2 dises fail in the last 5 years because of corrosion damage.  Probably this weakness has existed for many years.  There is no sign of coolant in the engine oil which is something to be thankful

I am putting it all back together and will try some K Seal.

Oh, dear.

On other cars where this has happened the head gaskets have turned out to be completely falling apart so I would advise biting the bullet and changing the gaskets, TBH. :-/ Anything less will be a very temporary solution, IMHO.

Kevin

[Marks DTM Calib]

Headgasket change is not to hard and can be completed quite cheaply

[PhilRich]

I would strongly recommend you do NOT use K-Seal or any other 'easy fix'!
I resorted to using it out of desperation (& lack of funds) on my 2.2 and for 1 week it appeared to have worked, until the gasket gave way in spectacular style! When I stripped the head, the K-Seal had bunged up almost every waterway almost completely! It almost cost me a new motor!!! and I am still finding remnants of it even after 3 coolant changes & thorough flushes! Bite the bullet & do the job right first time is my advice

[tunnie]

K-Seal is awful stuff, as Phil says don't use it! It will cause all kinds of cooling issues, had the dis-pleasure of working on a car that had K Seal used

[Midnight Mower]

Many thanks for all the comments.

I am not over keen to use K-seal, and do not usually feel daunted by tackling long or difficult jobs but removing the cylinder head from at least 1 side is daunting, although Marks DTM Calib says its not difficult. Can anyone tell me how long it is likely to take?  I have the TIS 2000 information system but find it uninformative and near useless.

If I did remove the offending cylinder head, I think I should check that all the valves make good seals and the flatness of the cylinder head.  Perhaps I should have this done by a specialist company? Should I take the rhs off also and check that? It won’t double the job will it?

The removal of the l h cylinder head according to my Haynes manual involves
Removal of the
 timing belt, assoc tensioner & its rear cover
 coolant pump
disconnection for injector harness & ecu?
Perhaps someone can educate me as to what is actually necessary

Is the use use of K-seal such a mistake if it will delay overhauling my engine which has only done 112 000 miles in 10 years?

K-Seal is promoted as an engineered solution to leaks not a gooy mess
It’s a dilemma!

Paul :-/ :-/