Car help fellow duders

Hey all, wondering if a duder can help me out with this one.

2 weeks ago I was driving and found smoke coming out of the hood of my car. Checked it out and it was the engine coolant leaking out of a little hole on the drivers side of the engine block.

I tried pouring liquid copper sealant into the radiator hose but to no avail. Since then I've just but trying to get an idea of how much this will cost or if it's something I could even fix myself.

The car is a 97 Ford Taurus, here's a few pics.

http://imgur.com/T9VAHaI

http://imgur.com/uX6zd2r

I cant tell from the pictures but if the hole is small enough you can use JB Weld or a similar epoxy to fill it in.

*edit* Sorry I dun read so gud. Im not sure about using epoxy on the block itself, I assumed you had a leak in your radiator.

General is for topics about games or the site, moving this to Off Topic.

JB Weld is amazing stuff but I don't know if it's that amazing. If there really is a hole in your engine block you either need a new engine or a new car.

Took a video to give a better idea of where it coming from.

https://youtu.be/W57bqDmI7I4

@bigboss1911:

video is private

I think that is a plug that you can pull out to install a block heater, so you could do that, which wouldn't be very expensive.

It's hard to tell from the picture though.

@kidavenger:

Sorry, switched it to public

@bigboss1911:

Can't tell much more from your video, based on the first picture this would still be my guess

Putting in a block heater would be a lot easier than hammering these plugs in, provided you have enough room to get it in.

It is hard to tell fom the images and video, but I think it's probably the cylinder head gasket that has blown. This escaping steam is the typical symptom of a blown head gasket. It may be a sheared bolt or stud or warped head also though. It might also be a leaking core plug too.

If it is a blown gasket, replacements are not that expensive but it fairly laborious and time consuming to remove the head so you can replace it, since you have to take off the carburetor and valve timing gear to get access to the block.

I think your right about it being the freeze plug. I took a better video showing the entire engine so I'll throw that up later. Only problem is trying to get to it since half of its blocked.

Hard to tell from the video & with all the coolant that's already everywhere.

I'd clean around the parts you think the leak is coming from to see if you can isolate it before doing anything. Did you change a timing belt or anything recently?

A few years ago, we had a 2000 Taurus that blew a head gasket. I found out this was evidently a very common thing with Taurus-es. For us, the cost to replace it was more than the value of the car, so we scrapped it and purchased something else. (Hopefully, your situation turns out better though.)

I had a Gen 3 Taurus and they are notorious for radiator, head gasket, and transmission problems. You will most definitely have to replace your radiator and you can do it yourself, but the shitty thing about a Gen 3 Taurus is that Ford played Tetris to cram as much into the small space as possible; you will have to take apart a lot of your engine to replace the radiator. I mean, you will have to disassemble so much that you might as well replace the head gaskets as well.

Core plugs (called freeze plugs in the US) are often deep down in the engine block, underneath the pistons and exhaust manifold usually. They can leak especially if incorrect coolant (i.e water without antifreeze) has been used for a long time. Untreated water can also rot the studs or bolts that join the cylinder head and engine block together as well.

I thought I saw a line of boiling water fizzing around the join between your cylinder head and block in your video though.

Other symptoms of a head gasket going can include white cloudy smoke in the exhaust and/or milky or cloudy oil in the engine. Have you checked those? Has the engine been running hot? Those symptoms depend on where the gasket has blown though and whether water is leaking into your oil-ways though the gasket.

If your car has a cast block and aluminium head then those cars are more prone to head gasket failure (and/or warped heads). I think the Taurus has this sort of engine. Good luck in resolving your problem though and I hope you are up and running again soon.

Car talk.

Get a bike is my advice...