I have an 02 Z24. I have a coolant leak on the driver side of my engine block. I appears that the leak is between the head and the block. When I ran the dry compression test the numbers from cylinders 1-4 are 210, 180, 210, 210. When I did the test wet the numbers were 240 across the board. Anyone seen this before? I'm hoping its not a cracked head but if the gasket was bad enough to visibly leak shouldn't I see a drop in pressure.

I know this might sound trivial, but did you check the water outlet flange that is on the driver side of the block? It is a piece of junk plastic item that tends to leak onto the backside of the tranny area and made me panic when it happened to me.

I had a gasket leak between the head and block that I could see dripping that still held pressure on my ln2.

You could hear combustion pressure push past it under load too, no oil and water ever mixed. Changed the gasket and took it to the strip a week later no problems.

I know the motors are different but I'm just saying it's possible to have what you hope you have




"A car just isn't a car without a little blood, sweat, and beers." -- Shadowfire

Andrew Cramer wrote:I know this might sound trivial, but did you check the water outlet flange that is on the driver side of the block? It is a piece of junk plastic item that tends to leak onto the backside of the tranny area and made me panic when it happened to me.

Yep first thing I checked and its not leaking there sadly. I guess I'll pull the head off and see.

Do a leak down test with the reservoir cap off. If the coolant is being pressurized it will bubble. If that doesn't show it the get a radiator pressure test and pressurize the coolant and see if that shows. One of the two should make it leak.




On the inside my car looks like a fighter jet.

I see the leak I'm just wondering if its the head gasket or the head.

before you go and strip the head off you might want to do a compression leak down test #2 at 180psi compared to the others at 210 and then with a wet test of 240 sounds like you might have a tired motor and instead of replacing half the motor you might be better off doing a full rebuild or getting a new motor.

I think I may have found it. It was that blasted plastic outlet. It was leaking on the back side so I couldn't find it until I took it off. There was some black gasket stuff used as a sealant. Does anybody know what this was? There was no o-ring with the part I ordered so I want to make sure I get the right type of sealant.