Coolant leak 1990 Dodge Omni

[jello2222]

My first time working on cars, my 1990 Dodge Omni was squealing something fierce. Seen it blow out white smoke and I installed a new water pump. Everything was running great and sounding great, until I took it out on the road, seen white smoke again and headed home. The temp was rising quickly and the car was dumping all of its antifreeze out of the back of the engine. Now I am just stumped, not sure what to do next.

[Bill]

What do you mean dumping coolant out the back of the engine? overheating and white smoke suggest you have a coolant leak, possibly even leakage in the block somewhere. If that's the case could be blown intake gaskets.

[jello2222]

got out of the car and looked underneath from the front and seen a heavy stream of coolant coming from behind the engine, unfortunately didn't have time to pinpoint where it was coming from.

[zin]

That's sounding pretty classic of a blown head gasket. They are fairly common on these cars, especially if they've been over-heated a few times before.

There are lots of threads here discussing it can different ways to fix them, some expedient, some more "by the book". If you're not making big power/boost, you might be able to get away with a "slip and switch", where you raise the whole top of the engine with a cherry picker, carefully remove the bad gasket, and replace it with a new one. I've done this on my stock 86, and it's been doing fine, though it will have to be "done right" sometime in the near future, but I needed it to work right away and it's been ok for must be a year now...

Mike

EDIT: Started the above reply before the added info, so it may not apply... BUT, it is possible for it to still be coming from the HG, however, there is a coolant line from the turbo to the back of the block on the pass side, which could be the source. You'll want to fill it up then climb under there with a flashlight to try and pin point it.

[Bill]

That's sounding pretty classic of a blown head gasket. They are fairly common on these cars, especially if they've been over-heated a few times before.

There are lots of threads here discussing it can different ways to fix them, some expedient, some more "by the book". If you're not making big power/boost, you might be able to get away with a "slip and switch", where you raise the whole top of the engine with a cherry picker, carefully remove the bad gasket, and replace it with a new one. I've done this on my stock 86, and it's been doing fine, though it will have to be "done right" sometime in the near future, but I needed it to work right away and it's been ok for must be a year now...

Mike

EDIT: Started the above reply before the added info, so it may not apply... BUT, it is possible for it to still be coming from the HG, however, there is a coolant line from the turbo to the back of the block on the pass side, which could be the source. You'll want to fill it up then climb under there with a flashlight to try and pin point it.

Agree, there's also coolant lines at the firewall that feed heater core. But whatever it is, if losing coolant I have to wonder if the motor did get hot and gaskets failed. Could be some other things but not that many. You'll have to pinpoint that. White exhaust is suspect, possibly coolant inside the motor where it shouldn't be, possibly cylinders. If you decide to get inside the motor, I wouldn't recommend doing a quick fix, unless fixing right is not an option because of high mileage or other issues.

[85boostbox]

Would not be a Turbo car. It is a 90 omni. Best thing to do first is crawl under the car and if it is leaking that bad you should be able to get a good idea of where it is coming from. If I am not mistaken on the tbi cars there are coolant lines that run under the throttle body. Take the air ox off of the throttle body and look and see if any hoses seem really wet or noticeable damage to them. Report back with results.

[onerippinturbo2]

dont forget about the frost plugs in the back of the block!!!!

[jello2222]

Thanks for all of the ideas, I really appreciate the help. Unfortunately my next day off is Saturday so hopefully I can report some more findings then!

Also wanted to add with the white smoke, I am pretty sure it wasn't out of the exhaust, it was more of a cloud engulfing the back of the vehicle when I accelerated.