Technical 85 Bertone X19 leaking coolant

[cscar]

I own a 85 Bertone X19 (original owner) the car has been sitting in a garage the last 5 years. I recently started it up and discovered it is leaking coolant under the car. It appears to be coming from under the engine, possibly under the water pump? I checked the hoses and the leak is not coming from them. the leak flows greater when the engine is running. Any help on what the problem may be would be appreciated. thanks

 

[jimbro1000]

There isn't really anywhere "under" the waterpump that could be leaking. If it isn't a pipe then it is either the waterpump itself, the main hardpipe that runs across the back of the engine or a core plug. The waterpump assembly doubles up as the alternator mounting and this does put a bit of extra stress on the pump and I've seen them leak like this on later models.

The strange part is that it flows faster with the engine running which would suggest the water pressure at the point of the leak is higher in that situation.

Realistically you are looking at giving the engine a good clean and then filling the engine up with coloured water so you can see exactly where the leak is from.

If the engine was frozen due to lack of antifreeze then you could be looking at multiple leaks. Equally even if it wasn't frozen a lack of antifreeze could have resulted in heavy corrosion of the aluminium components (like the waterpump and cylinder head). Since you're the original owner I'm going to hazard a guess and say you've looked after it properly and used antifreeze otherwise it would have been "dead" a long time ago.