VALLEY PAN LEAK OR...?????

[kipp]

Originally Posted by TwinTurboGTR

First off, you are welcome! I am glad it is being put to good use.

As for the coolant loss, lets reverse this.

So how are you seeing coolant on the floor and knowing it is from the back of the motor?

When you took the top end apart, did you securely fasten the bolts to the water accumulator?

What about the O-rings? Did you lubricate them before putting them in? Did they go into the grooves and seat properly?

I am assuming using the Black RTV, you reused your valley pan. Scraped the gasket off, reapplied the thin bead, let it set for an hour and then se seated it correct? Did the gasket, after you torqued it spill out the sides a bit.. did it squeeze out evenly?

Get back to us.

I park my car over a sheet of dry wall to catch drips. When I see a drip, I lay out some paper towel so I can better identify the fluid. In this case its coolant coming off the the back of the motor, towards the drivers side. If the car's been fully warmed up and been driven about 15 minutes I get about a half cup of coolant on the floor...lets say it sat there for a few hours after driving.

The bolts were fastened correctly. I'd like to point out that initially I could not get the water accumulator back on for some time, and I discovered that there was a piece of the old gasket stick to the engine. After that I made sure all the surfaces were clean...and only then could all the bolts line up and get fully tightened.

You mention the o-rings. I did not lubricate them. Is that just about a guarantee of leakage?

I did put a nice bead of RTV on there and let it set up for about an hour while resting on the engine head in position. I cam back and tightened it down just a wee bit. And in another 30 minutes tightened it down fully. It did not squeeze out in all areas. I would find it difficult to believe this would be such an easy thing to screw up. You're just putting enough on there to close an already very very small gap between the valley pan cover and the block.