Coolant leak from back of head?
 

This is not from my turbo, but from my MaX5 racer 91 1.6 NA. Too much very clear coolant is coming from the back of the head, going down near the clutch area. Hints/pointers?

I wanted to post this to M.net, but feared the 'is your radiator cap on' reply.

Thanks,

Your role model.

if it's not the rear gasket for the heater core outlet, that rubber nipple, or the IM gasket....then it's the head gasket. Which, by the pics, is what I'll guess.

HG crossed my mind too.

Looking for pics of back of stock 1.6 NA head so get some idea what Im looking at. Got any?

not in stock form...

http://www.boostedmiata.com/gallery2...serialNumber=2

Uh, where is that? Its not the heater core lines.

Doesnt look like if, nor does it drip from there when runnin

That would be from the side of the head right. That is very dry there.

Bummer.

when my little nipple failed over the weekend, it was very apparent that it was the issue...the large splice in it was gushing coolant:

http://www.boostedmiata.com/gallery2...serialNumber=2

yours is dry, and it really doesn't seem like it's coming form the IM gasket, which would drip down the side of the motor...so unless that water neck gasket failed, or the heater hose attached it it is leaking, I'm still sticking with HG.

My guess is water neck gasket for now. Or I fucked that looping up.

It's hard to tell what's water and what's oil from those pics, but it looks like the spray is too high to be HG. Can check your oil to see if there's any coolant in it. It doesn't look like the water neck gasket since that whole assembly looks dry.

There is clear coolant on the garage floor. It's coolant. Ill check that water neck.

its prob the back seal of the HG

It WAS the water neck gasket. Removed, cleaned, replaced. Not too bad of a job and the cooling is perfect now.

Thanks for all the input.

yay, my first initial guess.

You win this picture of a clean rear water neck attachment point on a B6 engine.

This is a nice picture for future reference:
http://members.casema.nl/cherber/web...otorachter.jpg

Having the same problem right now... thanks for creating this thread with such good pictures!

No problem. Do drain enough coolant so that that water neck can really dry before you put the new gasket on.

where did you get the gasket from?

this dont look good i pulled it off to inspect and this is what i found.

this

:bowrofl:

Now would be a good time for a coolant reroute.
http://www.etdracing.com/m-tuned/pro...products_id=85
You can also fab one up cheaper too, via the picture in the 4th post.