Help...'99 Rs4S Leaking Coolant Into Passenger Side Footwell

[SKYNET]

I recently re-registered my '99 manual rs4s Stagea

Last time i drove it white mist started blowing through the aircon vents in the top centre dash in cabin

also the coolant was boiling inside the coolant overflow bottle but this was after driving for about 1 hour so i got it towed home

I just replaced the thermostat on the rb25det NEO engine with a new Nissan one

Havent done a coolant flush yet or bleed the coolant lines to get rid of any air bubbles in the system

When i moved it out of the garage this arvo i could smell & hear coolant bubbling thru centre aircon/air vents in cabin

& i found about a 1-2 litres of coolant had leaked onto the passenger side floormat

its coming from under dash/below glovebox-i took the glovebox out & it seems to be leaking from a big black heater[??]box which i think is connected to two aluminium hard lines in engine bay

which is located behind where the glovebox fits

Its been in garage for about 1 year but i have started it up every few months & let it run for about 3 minutes

& im pretty sure it wasnt leaking coolant into cabin before

The head was fully recoditioned just before this started happening

Any advice will be appreciated as i want to get it fixed asap to use as a work car

[SKYNET]

My mate who is a mechanic & did most of the work on the head just sent me this text message...

" it won't be head gasket unless it's been driven with no coolant [which it hasnt]... It'll be the heater core, very common thing, u can loop the hoses and fill & bleed the cooling system so u can drive it..."

[66yostagea]

This was on way back. I think it was SKA who wrote it up.

[Tangles]

Heater core has sprung a leak.

you can disconnect the pipework behind the turbo on the firewall and reroute it so the coolant doesnt go through the firewall to the heater core.

[KiwiRS4T]

There is a post on how to get the heater core out without removing the whole dash. I'll try and find it soon as I think mine is starting to leak as well. The last time I did one on a Stagea the core was about $70.

[bangahh]

had similar issue in my old r33.

http://www.tygarbyte.com/Skyline%20Heater%20Core.php

one way to test is to put a bypass in the heater core on the firewall. you should see two pipes going into the cabin where the passenger side is -

join them to stop the leak - all this does is stop fluid going to the heatercore, then you can still drive your car around with out overheating due to loss of fluids.

Not soo bad during warmer months, but you need them for winter to defog the dash.

[SKYNET]

Are these the hoses i need to connect?

[Tangles]

yeah, take them out of the firewall connections, and reconnect to each other - so that coolant stays in the engine bay system but doesnt get through to the leaking heater core.

[SKYNET]

Problem solved-thanks heaps fellas

[jase33]

Mine has just done this. What did you use to connect the two hoses together?

[KiwiRS4T]

Piece of 1/2 in pipe?