Questions and Answers

Ford Mustang Drinking Coolant Q. I recently bought the car and would like to restore the car to the original condition. The radiator fluid seems to be disappearing. I'm not sure if the engine is eating it or if there is a leak. I don't want to put stop leak but need to find the problem. When running the car with the radiator cap off there are a lot of bubbles in the radiator fluid.

I'm not sure if this is normal for this kind of car or not? I was thinking about changing the radiator fluid, adding redline and a new radiator cap but I thought I should ask someone first.

There are a lot of loose wires and vacuum lines disconnected, looks like the person that owned the car was not a mechanic. I would appreciate any feed back or advice you can give me.

• 1984½ Ford Mustang 350 GT
• 5.0 liter 302 cid.
• 5-speed manual
• 130,000 miles
• Carburetor Holley 600 CFM

Thank you for your time in reading this e-mail.
Nino

A. Finding a coolant leak is pretty easy with a cooling system pressure tester. When the system is pressurized an external leak will show up fairly quickly.

With the pressure you are sure there are no external leaks, then it's a pretty good bet the head gasket(s) are blown. This diagnosis would tend to be supported by the bubbles you see in the cooling system. If you are seeing white smoke when the engine is running, that would tend to confirm it as well. A compression test will tell for sure.

If you do not have a cooling system pressure tester, any shop will do it for you for a nominal fee.