Coolant Leak?

[bagelboy]

OK guys. I have a coolant leak on my '87 Aspy. It is not coming from the waterpump, but higher up near the thermostat housing. I find coolant slowly dripping around the thermostat housing where it mounts. I checked the radiator hose that goes into the thermostat housing, and it's dry. No fluid at all. So I'm thinking it is maybe the gasket that seals the thermostat housing. But this is a guess. I don't want to take it all apart and find out I did a lot of work for nothing. Any ideas?

[Roleketu]

I just did the thermostat gasket and it's really not that much work. It's mostly a pain having to drain the coolant system. If you do, I recommend not removing the lower hose, but instead remove the lower water flange. Beats trying to get the hose back on, especially if you've got the Poorboy conversion and the radiator is pushed out a bit. Make sure the thermostat stays in place, I had to do the job over because the thermostat dropped down a hair and the flange didn't seal. I also used a light coat of red RTV high temp silicone sealant along with new o-rings.

[neoracer]

napa sells a small bottle of tracer dye that you can add to the coolant and then use a uv light to find the leak

other parts store probably have same thing that they sell to their commercial customers

[unionjack]

I used a regular O ring from True Value as the seal on the thermostat housing, it works very well if not better than the stock seal plus costs about 40c or less.
My hose was still leaking slightly so I added a zip tie around it right above the hose clamp and that worked well.

[bagelboy]

Not really sure if it's the housing itself. It seems the anti freeze is on top of the housing, even though I've checked the hose going into it. Perhaps I'll try another clamp on the hose. I just don't know why it would have fluid on top of the housing if the hose doesn't leak.

[SIR tricky]

Could be the O rings in the coolant tubes on the top of the engine

[aspengold]

I had one of thise leaks on my '84. Finally discovered the reserve tank was too full of coolant. Let it drip out, problem solved.

Bob **==

[bagelboy]

Really had a chance today to look everything over. I figured that since there was coolant on the top surface of the thermostat housing, it had to come from the O ring around the thermostat or the hose going into the housing. Since the hose was the first place to start, I tightened the hose clamp, which almost turned one full revolution, and I added another clamp below the existing one. I fired up the bike and let it run up to temp and not a drop. I believe all is well! Thanks for everyone's input. Now if only I could locate that problem with the radio buzzing..........................