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Leaking Coolant

Hello fellow Porschephiles.. I am experiencing a problem where I am losing power as the revs build (started at 4000rpm, now can get as bad 3200rpm). I have also noticed that I topped up the coolant two days ago and now the coolant light is on again! Is this definitely a head gasket? - Cliff Parker

If you can't see where the coolant is leaking
..it may well be the head gasket allowing it to leak into the oil or one or more of the cylinders. A leak as fast as yours may quickly turn into one bad enough to empty the system of coolant if the engine is running, risking major damage. Take it to Scuds now, even if they can't work on it. You should have it transported on a flat bed truck, unless you are feeling lucky. Good luck, Glenn Evans, '80 928 Petrolblaumetallic 'S' look - 5 speed!

Without sounding to much like the 'mericans (you will kill your motor), I will say that driving it will do harm to your heads or block or both.

This depends on where the leak is and what's busted. It would help If you are a little mechanically minded, to pull the sparkplugs out one by one and check for one that looks much different than the rest. This would narrow it down to which side of the motor is leaking.

What can happen if you keep driving is where the water is leaking into the cylinder it slowly eats into the alloy of the head and block and makes a little trench. This is not a good thing especially because our block is alloy also.

I seen this happen on Chevy and ford V8 motors both of which have cast iron blocks and heads. Its not nice having to get a bowtie block and heads patched up because of a $10 headgasket (you could probably add a few more zero's for a porsche part)

If you are taking it to a mechanic to fix make sure you see the heads and the block apart before they touch anything. This is so you can be sure what the problem is to start with and it makes their job of ripping you off for any stuff up they might cause harder./p>
This applies to any workshop. As the name on the shop window usually is not the one pulling your car apart and putting it back together. Its some young'n doing some learning ;) If they break something it goes straight on your bill. Cheers, Jes V.

It sounds like you may have a head gasket problem due to the loss of coolant ( I assume you have checked for leaks ) if you continue to use the vehicle for an extended period you will cause erosion to the block and head ( this occurred on my previous 85S as the Porsche dealer was to stupid to find the problem or do a compression test over a consistent 10 month period while having me spend $10000.00 for work I did not need ).

Perform or have your mechanic do a compression test on the car and if you have any suspect reading ( one cylinder low but not a lot ) do a cylinder leakage test and repair the gasket if needed immediately.

My car exhibited no bad characteristics initially when it went for a major service except for a occasional minor miss at idle and the dealer never chased the problem as requested resulting in lots of time lost and lots more expense.Regards, Eddy Sain, '91 S4 midnight blue

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