Found a small coolant leak after I have changed every hose and gasket related to my cooling system. It is also enough that I have not noticed the coolant level drop more than a 100 mL since I changed the a water pump on January 2.

I noticed it because I felt the faintest whiff of sweet coolant smell. Kept looking around until I saw traces of it in the right rear of the engine near the EGR pipe. I palpated it with a paper towel and it came out red.

Could the leak be because of the metal pipe that joins the valley hose with the octopus hose? I stress, all of my hoses are new, including the valley and octopus hoses.

 

I would move that pinch clip in a little and,,, this is just me,,, do away with that funky clip/clamp and get a regular clamp. Pinch or otherwise...

Ya just gotta get in there and mess with it...

 

Alright, I like the no cost solutions. Thanks.

 

Other thing is to look into finding some heat shield for that EGR pipe. It carries hot exhaust gases most of the time, so it is a lot of heat for those rubber hoses to handle. My car came with some sort of elongated fibrous cap, held by a couple of bolts. Probably the factory part. Even some form of aluminum shielding would help...

 

My car had that fibrous cap and it disintegrated when I had to replace the EGR pipe. I had forgotten about it, but you’re right. I need to find one soon.

 

Update:

I bought some heat shield wrap and put it on the EGR pipe. I also moved the pinch clamp on the hose further to the end of the hose. Upon inspection, the clamp was clamping the hose at the lip of the pipe. I hope that solves the problem. I will be keeping an eye out.

 

Cooooool! (No pun intended, lol) Good luck...
I would keep an eye on that little clippy thingAHmajig, too

Good Stuff Mann!

 

This leak is now becoming a worry. I adjusted the clamp and changed the clippy one. You would think the leak would cease but it hasn’t. The leak seems to run through the join between the block and the head.

I fear this may be a head gasket.

However, I don’t have any of the head gasket symptoms. Oil is not frothy or milky, my coolant is also not milky. Both fluids have their normal colors. I don’t have bubbling in my coolant nor do I have any sweet smell cooling from my exhaust and I have no smoke coming from my exhaust of any color.

What is the possibility that this is a head gasket failure that has the coolant leaking only towards the outside of the block?

Edit:

Upon closer inspection, I traced the leak to under the supercharger. I guess I will have to remove the blower again and see if the clamps are not well secured.

 

WELL...
That's an edit that can give some relief... At the same time, im new to the life of the XK Supercharger... Don't even know what's involved or how bad that can be... my first job on my xk8 on the other hand was the LH head... I'm super interested... keep posting please...

 

It’s an easy but tedious job as there are many steps involved. If I'm going to be going in there again I will do the knock sensors as well, which I didn’t do last time.

 

My brain has been wracking as to why the new valley hose is leaking. I remember sanding and cleaning the metal fitting for every hose that connects to one. Now I have remembered that the octopus and radiator hoses were supplied with their own constant tension spring clamps and the valley hoses were not. I reused the clamps for the valley hoses. I’m fairly certain (hopeful) that is the cause of my leak.

I bought new clamps today. I will tackle it next weekend and hope for the best.

 

I had the leak down by the throttle body and ended up moving the spring clap to the end of the hose and installing a screw clap behind it. Problem Solved. One of the easy ones for me.
Those small leaks are so hard to find, you can smell them but can't get to them before they disappear.

 

Double clamping... I’m desperate enough to eradicate all coolant loss that I will do it.

 

Giandanialxk8....you are dedicated & tenacious !...awesome.
I am new here, bought a ‘05 XKR about six weeks ago. I detected a faint odor of coolant pre-purchase. I can see some burn off on the heat shielding under the coolant reservoir and suspect the reservoir or a grommet on the bottom side perhaps ?... any thoughts or offerings ?

thank you,
max & “xkrface”
​​​​​​​

 

Got to it today. I hated every minute of it. It took me 12 hours this time instead of the 48 it took me last time to R&R the supercharger.

Findings:

• Right Valley hose was held to the water outlet by wishes and prayers. Only the tip of the hose was contacting the metal. I corrected that and changed the clamp.
• The clamp for the bypass hose was half on the metal and half on the hose. I corrected that and gave it a nice tug to make sure it was sealing well. It is.
• One of the clamps on the 90° hose on the supercharger’s V8 lid was bad. The hose would come off completely by pulling on it even with the clamp on. Changed that clamp and it now holds firmly.
• One of the left side hoses to the supercharger that begins as a tributary from the lower radiator hose also had a bad clamp. Unfortunately I didn’t have a spare clamp for that one at the moment and I will have to buy a new one.
• A jubilee clamp on a top hose to the coolant tank from the firewall area completely sheared off when I was removing it. I also didn’t have a spare for that one.

Other things I took care of:

• Wrapped the EGR pipe with exhaust heat wrap and replaced what I had there before that was flimsy by comparison.
• I also used that same wrap on the valley hoses to give them a fighting chance to survive the heat that must generate down there.

 

Why so many clamp issues? Were you not paying attention the first time you were in there?

 

It would seem so. I mostly remember frustration, pain, and being in a hurry. Also, that first time I hadn’t taken into consideration that constant tension spring clamps do fail.

 

While a $0 bicycle pump solution is possible, I've found a coolant pressure testing kit to be extremely useful for finding small coolant leaks without having to have the car running or even warm.

I recently discovered that this kit can also be used to easily power bleed hydraulic clutch and brake systems solo, without needing another person to pump the clutch/brakes.

These kits are so inexpensive ($50-$100) relative to the cost of even 1 diagnostic visit to a mechanic that once the basic wrenches/sockets/screwdrivers tool sets are squared away, it's high on my list of required 2nd level tools, along with torque wrenches, disposable gloves, OBD reader, compression gauge, a mechanic's stethoscope, LOTS of light, IR temperature sensor, etc.



Coolant pressure test kit

 

If the coolant loss problem returns I will definitely be buying one of those. I'm currently waiting for the car to cool down after running some radiator flush in an attempt to get the heater to actually heat.

 

For what it's worth I'll chuck in my pennies worth
In your original picture you show the plastic norma connector in the bottom of the picture.

This can be the source of the leak. They fracture and the water drips onto the exhaust and so you get the smell, and there is no trace of water because it evaporates. I cut out the norma connector with some inserts and hose, and never looked back.