Confirmation my block is cracked?

[Chrisw]

So I had a pretty crazy fall last year and kind put a way the S14 for the winter, doing the maintenance stuff on a few different occasions. Well with going back and forth, I completely forgot to dump all the distilled water. :picardfp:

Well now that it's starting to warm up a bit, I have coolant colored water leaking from somewhere near the intake side of the block and the exhaust side of the block. I believe my block is cracked, but I can't find a crack. The engine is still pretty cold and it was only melting for a few days while we had unseasonably warm weather. So now it's cold again.

How can i CONFIRM that the block is cracked if I can't find a crack? Or what should my next step be? Thaw it with coolant and a heater and see if I can find the leak that way?

[rioredstang]

Yes, thaw it with a heater then get a cooling system pressure tester. You can get them on loan from a parts store or borrow from you local repair shop. Add some water then pressurize the radiator to about 15psi and look for the water. It will seep out where the cracks are. It may also leak inside the engine if you cracked a cylinder wall.

[Chrisw]

thanks man. I will do this.

[Dolby109]

Engines have freeze plugs for this reason. It is still possible to crack the block but hopefully instead one of the freeze plugs got pushed out. Check the freeze plugs (approx 1" metal circles in the block) under the intake and one or more might be popped out.