been lookin around, I can't fine ANY threads that help me. Last night i was idling at the gas station, making a phone call, when someone in a car next to me yelled "You're leaking green stuff". Great, and since my temp gauge doesn't work i had no idea how hot she was. I tried to book it home but it was gutless. As i was accelerating I think i got passed by a prius! Got her home and she was still leaking coolant like crazy... It was dark and i needed to go to bed for work so i just drove a different car today. no I'm off and one of my coworkers was nice enough to let me borrow his cooling system pressure tester. how do I do it? I've done it on trucks before but I don't know what to pressure it up to.

 

A couple of things. With the gauge not working, and knowing you're spewing out coolant, why in the world would you keep driving the car? The engine slow down could have been from coolant drenching the ignition wires, optispark, etc. Could also be that the engine was overheating so much to the point that it was starting to lock up (that's bad).
Leaking as much as it was, you don't need a pressure tester. All you need to do is see where the coolant is spraying from when the engine is running, after you top it up first.
Likely leak points that come to mind are: head gasket, intake manifold gasket, water pump or gasket, a rusted out core plug (often mistakenly called a freeze plug), cracked block, split heater hose or radiator hose, split radiator. You could have caused some of these yourself, by not being able to monitor the engine's heat with a gauge, if it overheated for some other reason.

 

f body lt1 caps are rated at 18 psi. that should be operating pressure.

 

I had to get it home, that's why I drove it. Still a mystery why the loss of power. Drives just fine now. Thanks for the PSI info, but i figured it out when I looked at the cap lol. there was a hole in a small hose, the hole was tiny, even with the pressure tester I couldn't see where it was comming from. It's the hose by the IAC and TPS really tucked in there. Autozone gave my fuel line hose and assured me it would be fine, it has been so far.

 

Sounds like you got lucky this time. If it were my car I would fix the temperature gauge.

 

Naaaaah, gauges are better used as pretty dash decorations. Knowing the running condition of the engine (with a gauge), and knowing what's wrong before it's too late, removes a lot of the mystery and adventure of driving.

 

Yep, much more useful to read text messages than reading the gauges. The car will let you know when it is broken enough, so why bother with the gauges.

 

I can't find the sensor to check if Its plugged in. on shbox.com it showed it being adjacent to the front spark plug under the exhaust manifuld on the driver's side... in my car there's just a hole. On my dad's buick the sensor is there but there are no wires going to it and his gauge works. He and I are totally lost.

 

some have it at the back of the intake manifold. mine is just above the oil filter

 

^ lol, that one is the oil pressure switch. He's looking for the temperature gauge sending unit. Nice picture tho.