Where's my coolant going?

[Richard J. Andrews]

i saw one of these oil testing kits @ autozone for 18.99... you but it, 
mail it, they send you the results..
now as far as low mileage and cracking... my brother's a4 30v 2.8 motor 
w/PES (POS) supercharger
overboosted and cracked the block... it was driveable..
but had a bad miss.. needless to say he now has a NEW 30v 2.8 motor...
your 80 is a 4 cylinder?
audi's older blocks are rock solid... at least on the 2.1/2.2's i've used 
and severely abused some of these
engines... they do NOT break... i even broke the cam belt on my 4kq @ 
5500RPM and didn't bend and valves...
the newer motors do not seem quite as strong in my opinion...
oh well...
i would check compression....
if you are losing coolant pressure when pressure testing.. it is definately 
going somewhere...
try pressurizing the system with the plugs out....
do this a few times as it leaks down...
now turn the motor over with the starter with the plugs out...
moisture shoots out... you found you're problem..

HTH!
-rich
'86 4kq
At 03:16 PM 1/22/01 -0500, you wrote:
>     Thanks to all who replied.  I have that sinking feeling it's a head
>gasket, but it could be a cracked something as well.  The engine only has
>60k miles on it!  I do drive hard, no doubt, and the weather up here is a
>bit extreme.  I would like to think that the problem is a gasket that is
>"aged" and that because of the low mileage the head and block are fine,
>anyone agree, disagree?  I am going to keep an eagle eye on the coolant
>level and temp gauge.  Though my car never eve runs hot, never has.  It runs
>a bit below the "normal" notch when cruising, but in town in traffic it gets
>to the middle or a bit more, never in the HOT section.  I am considering
>ordering one of those oil testing kits to look for contamination, thanks
>Mike Pederson.
>
>I'll let everyone know how it goes...  it never ends...
>
>Alexander van Gerbig -- '88 80
>
>The Audi  80 Pages-----------------
>http://surf.to/the80pages.com
>
>North Ferrisburg, VT 05473