Hi, I recently bought a 1979 Pontiac Trans Am to restore and today after taking the car around the block I noticed a small puddle of antifreeze under the car. It looks like it was directly under the front of the oil pan - which I assume is quite bad. What does antifreeze in your oil mean? The Trans Am has the 403 Oldsmobile engine from the factory. I'm hoping that perhaps the antifreeze was leaking from somewhere else but I looked around and cannot find another wet spot. The antifreeze that dripped on the floor did not have any oil in it so perhaps the leak is from somewhere else? Help!!! Chris
4 sources right over that area Lots of stuff could be wrong on an Olds (or any other one) in that area: 1. Water pump seal- this is the worst case. When the seal goes, it will come out the bypass hole. Gets worse real fast, need to take care of it. Major blowout coming. 2. T'stat housing to manifold- Lesser severity, have to remove, clean up and put in a new gasket. Put sealant on the threads and under the heads of the bolts that hold it to the intake manifold. Might as well change the t'stat, they're cheap. 3. Bypass hose leaking- self explanatory, straight section of hose, easy to fix. Have to remove T'stat housing. See #2 above. 4. Radiator hose to t'stat outlet leaking- again, self explanatory. Clamp loose, bad hose, clean up connection. Easiest to fix (and least likely to be wrong). #2-4 can be seen easily from the top side and are easy to fix. First one is a little trickier to detect, much more difficult to correct (new water pump), and highly likely that's what's wrong. Hey, it's winter, nothing's easy.
>>Thank you very much Dave! I'll check out all items that you mentioned - I think that you are probably right in that the leak is coming from the water pump seal as I did not see anything leaking from the thermostat housing. I'll give an update on the car's progress in the coming weeks as I get time to work on it. Chris
