 Here's the do-it-yourselfer's option. You should have no trouble finding this or something similar. |
 This is our patient. |
The Game’s Afoot
So now that we’ve talked about this threat, how do we go about checking for it? Once again, we have two options, one of which you’ll only find in a professional repair shop, the other of which is available to anyone near a parts house. Or an Autozone. Both tests look, not for leaks themselves, per se, but rather for the presence of exhaust gasses in the coolant, which, to be fair, could also be symptomatic of a cracked head.
For the do-it-yourselfer, just pick up a leak detection kit from any auto parts store or parts house. The kit will come with a gas cylinder and a bottle of chemical compound. The cylinder hooks up to the radiator fill cap. The chemical is poured into the cylinder, and an engine vacuum is connected to the top. As the engine runs, the vacuum draws air from the system through the chemical. If there are any significant levels of unburned hydrocarbons, (say, from your fuel), then the chemical will react to them and change color from blue to green. As an aside, although the manufacturer will happily sell you more bottles of chemical, we have it on good authority that the stuff can actually be reused by simply leaving it to set out in an open bottle, exposed to air for a day or two. Of course, you didn’t hear that from us.
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| Simply pour the testing fluid into the cylinder, attach the vacuum... | And run the engine until bubbles appear in the fluid. Ten minutes or so should be adequate. |
Unfortunately, this test requires minimum levels of HCs to detect. Granted, it’ll pick up on the levels caused by a serious leak, but if you really want to be sure, (remember, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and at least a metric ton of regret), you’ll have to go the high-tech route. A Four Gas Exhaust Analyzer with an expansion chamber (to protect its delicate sniffer) can be hooked up in the same way as the dye test. The advantage of this is that it will pick up on even the smallest traces, down to mere parts per million, and give you a nice readout of the levels, good for judging the severity of a problem.
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| If you happen to own this piece of work, or have a friend who does, this is the way to go. Precise,s ensitive, and, yes, expensive. | A homemade expansion chamber allows the fumes to expand enough to not overload the machine. |
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| The machine not only offers a precise digital readout... | But it'll print you out a report suitable for framing. Or not. |
Case Closed
Hopefully, this will give you a better understanding of these oft-overlooked engine components, and help prevent your car from becoming a crime scene.