Actually, I am quite sure its going to the ground, but I need to figure out
its escape route.
The weather was nice, cool, and temporarily dry late this morning, so I
decided to go on a fairly long cruise in the central Texas countryside (68
Black Lebaron or Black B*tch). It so happened that I passed through a
great 3 mile hilly section with great pavement and very little traffic, so
I couldn't resist. About 5 miles after I slowed down from my short
125-130mph (while climbing a hill!) blast, I noticed a lot of white smoke
behind me. The guy behind me pulled over next to me swearing that what he
saw was radiator steam. But there was no overheating according to the
stock temp gauge and no coolant loss. The left exhaust manifold was wet
with slowly burning oil which appeared to be power steering fluid. The
level of the PS fluid though did not seem that low, but this explanation
seemed OK at the time: the high engine rpm at this high speed (4200-4300
rpm) caused a rapid leak which then showed up as steam/smoke. And it did
not reappear. As I kept driving home though, the transmission started
acting up. First, the converter lockup stopped locking. Then, after a
relatively uneventful 12 mile interstate drive, the tranny started sleeping
real bad at low speed. At home, I added a quart of fluid, and during the
short drive to the auto-part store, it did better. Another quart, and the
behavior was back to normal, including the lockup converter
functioning. But before the 1.5 mile trip back home was over, the symptoms
returned.
My first guess was the radiator connection. But it feels dry there, and I
can't see any oil in the radiator. The radiator is holding pressure, and
it seems to not loose any coolant. I can't see anything real bad on the
tranny oil pan. However, the super wet wether is not allowing a very good
spotting of drops. This has to be a real massive leak occurring mainly
while driving. Also, I am wondering if there was any connection between
this tranny leak and the apparent PS leak.
D^2, already looking for a transmission cooler.
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