Exhaust steam

[J Carr]

Have a 96 Diesel with newish (15 months) head gasket and rad. After driving for at least 20 mins i.e. when engine gets hot, large amounts of white steam (not smoke) are released from the exhaust in pulses. Large volumes of coolant are being lost from the header tank with no visible signs of leakage. There is no overheating and a professional head gasket check has proved negative. The question is how then could the coolant be getting into the exhaust. Is coolant fed to/round the turbo and could a fault here be the problem?

[missfixit70]

Yep, this has happened before, Dreamwarrior I think & possibly one or two others.
What is a professional head gasket check? Did they do a sniffer test in the header tank to check for exhaust gasses in the water?

[renegade]

My freda was over heating and pressurising slightly, AND passed our w/s head gskt test, checking for exhaustgasses in coolant, so this test is not to be totally to be replied upon. It turned out to be a cracked cyl head, all done now though.

[dreamwarrioruk]

we had the same symptoms when our turbo gave up, exactly like an f1 blowup and the water was just sucked out of the system. you could check this by blocking off the two coolant pipes that connect to the turbo.

[mikeonb4c]

you could check this by blocking off the two coolant pipes that connect to the turbo.

Presumably only briefly Mike so the turbo doesn't overheat? How long would be safe?

You're back from York meet then - hope it went well.

[dreamwarrioruk]

we ran ours for two weeks before it gave up completely, but yes it would only be a temp test if the problems with the turbo.
yup were back, im knackered but absolutely brill time had by all.