20 valve turbo coolant loss

[David]

Another thought? Not sure if it would apply for a 200. But the aux. radiator on my CGT has a pin hole that weeps constantly but never enough to drip, just enough that I have to top off the coolant every few weeks. it's been that way for 3 plus years and have never gotten worse or better. I figure I'll live with it. Keeps the coolant fresh and clean from constant slow flushing.

Dave
1987 CGT 2.3
SE Virginia, USA

> 
> From: tom winter <tom at freeskier.com>
> Date: 2004/10/06 Wed AM 10:45:26 EDT
> To: <McCohens at aol.com>,  <quattro at audifans.com>
> Subject: Re: 20 valve turbo coolant loss
> 
> on 10/6/04 7:35 AM, McCohens at aol.com at McCohens at aol.com wrote:
> 
> > I am seeing an empty burp tank every morning on my wife's 91 200Q.  No leaks,
> > no white smoke out the exhaust.  A pressure test showed a small drop over time
> > but nothing that terrible.
> > 
> > My mechanic is hesitant to take the car in as he has seen cracked heads on
> > these in the past and has had problems finding good ones as a replacement.
> > 
> > Any other experience in this area?  Never saw this sort of issue on the list
> > before.  If my mechanic is correct what is the going rate for a good head.
> > _______________________________________________
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> > 
> 
> This is my guess, maybe a bad one, but I suspect that your head gasket is
> going bad. Sometimes it can take a while before the thing totally blows. I
> had the same thing happen (and I think this phenomenon was discussed last
> month here) on a 5000 tqa. The coolant kept going missing, and I couldn't
> figure it out. Until the gasket blew, and then it was pretty obvious what
> the problem was! You may also start to see failures in the cooling system
> because pressure is getting dumped into the system. In my case, the
> expansion tank was leaking a bit, from the cap and the seem of the tank. My
> initial response was, "oops, time for a new tank." Wrong! Others have
> reported hoses blowing off, etc. The car ran slightly hot, too.
> 
> So, you may not need a new head. But if you do pull it to replace the
> gasket, I would certainly suggest a valve job. I don't think heads are as
> hard to find as your mechanic thinks. But that's another story. . .
> 
> Good luck
> 
> Tom
> 
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