I have a pretty major coolant leak, filled it up with coolant on a wednesday, went on vacation and didn't use my car again until monday, and the coolant was empty. I have a 98 grand prix gt. what's the best way to find the leak?

I actually just had to put my car in the shop to have them fix some sort of intake gasket, which I'm finding out is a commonly failing part in GPs.

I had a puddle of coolant just sitting there on top of my engine right behind the left side of my supercharger. But since you're isn't s/c'd, I'm not sure where to tell you to look.

The mechanic I took it to actually looked at it for free and told me what he thought the problem was. Labor for you should be a LOT cheaper than it was for me, because he had to take my entire s/c off to fix it.

could be a lot of things. A common one is the LIM or the waterpump. That seems like a LOT of coolant, was there a puddle on a specific part of the motor? or under the car?

Also, where did you check the level from? The resivoir or the radiator?

The best way to find the leak, is to have the cooling system pressure tested.

Something major just happened to mine. I noticed in the last week that it was using a lot of coolant just after refilling. No leaks so it has to be burning it. Now after one day all the coolant is gone. Refilled with water to get me to the shop. Now a lot of white smoke is coming out of the exhaust. Is this the water being burned? Its very hard to start as well so I think its all the water going into the cylinders.

Refilled cooling system with water instead of coolant

+

White smoke coming out exhaust

+

Car is hard to start

= I'm going to go with a 98% chance that you are leaking coolant into your cylinders.

If you want to make sure, check your oil. I'm pretty sure it will be milky (?) if there is coolant mixing with it.

Lower Intake Manifold gaskets or Head gaskets...

Pray they're LIM gaskets otherwise the cost goes up quite a bit. Ditto on the checking your oil to see if any coolant has gotten in there. If it has then you risk spinning bearings, etc...

concur.

same thing just happened to me yesterday on the way down the NJ turnpike...water is just dumping into my motor with all those symtomes.

i dont think its the heads because it did not over heat on my....and i heard the intakes are pretty sh*tty...what do i do to fix it?

You could send a sample to http://www.blackstone-labs.com to see if any of its going into your oil, which would trash your engine.

Yah, sounds like a LIM. I had to do one on my Grand Am, fun times. Luckily, no coolant got into my cylinders, hope you get lucky and theres little to no damage!