[tmcstocker]

My Testarossa is sometimes pressurising water and blowing it out near the right hand side radiator but is only doing it on the rare occasion. I can drive 80 miles with absolutely no problems at all,the only unusual thing is that the warm air in the car goes cold for a minute then back to hot again but the water temp always stays nice and normal only rising slightly sitting in traffic.I then could go for a 10 mile drive and she will piss out some water on me but again the temp is not rising it was never a lot of water but yesterday she put it out big time. I unscrewed the cap to see and she pushed the water out there as well when i opened it. Surely if it was my head gaskets would she not do this all the time and boil up and why is the air in the car from the heaters going from warm to cold? As you may know by now i know piss all about cars and would appreciate any help on this matter that anyone can offer as well as an idea of costs if it means trouble.
Strange thing is i never get too upset at this kind of stuff as i still just absolutely love the thing??

 

[carguy]

The only intentional place that coolant should exit is the overflow hose at the left rear area of the engine bay. The right front area is a strange place to lose coolant. Better try and find out what the source is. From your description it sounds like there is air in the cooling system. There are several bleeder locations for getting rid of trapped air. With the car warmed up and the heater going, try and bleed out the system and see if things improve. You may have to go through this procedure several times to finally evacuate all the air.

As for the expulsion of coolant near the right side radiator, the only sources I can think of is a hose or loose clamp, or the "weep" hole at the water pump area. So take a close look and see what's up. Keep us posted.

 

[tmcstocker]

Thanks Carguy, you are right about where it is coming out, it's at the hose on the right hand radiator. I have left her to the garage this morning and the bleeders are a bit of a bitch as they are stuck so i left the guys using choice words trying to free them up. Do you reckon air in the system more so than the head gaskets is my problem? if it turns out to be the gaskets what sort of work or money is involved and would this indicate the car has had a tough enough life or do they just go either way wether the car has been looked after or not?

 

[carguy]

The flat-12 motors are built very very well, and usually don't suffer from head gasket issues. But - during the major service it is recommended that the heads be retorqued. Once a retorque is done they are good to go for the life of the vehicle I believe. I would venture to guess that your head gaskets are fine. To replace them is quite a big job, requiring the motor to be disassembled down to the block - quite expensive. More than likely you have a bad hose connection or something similar, not a big deal. So at this point I wouldn't worry too much. But please do let us know how things turn out, and if the erratic hot/cold heater issue goes away once the cooling system is topped off and bled.

 

[Magnum6464]

If you had a problem with the head gaskets leaking, this would also leak into the engine and a huge amount of white smoke would come out of the exhaust, so much so that you would think someone threw a smoke bomb under you car.....


~

 

[tmcstocker]

Sorry for the delay in letting you guys know the outcome. Thank god you proved to be right and it appears there was air in the system. My tessy is now running like a dream with the air temp staying regular and i'm in love again. These cars are unbelievable to drive bring on the good weather!!

 

[carguy]

THAT'S GREAT !! Glad to hear it! Thank You for letting us know.....