Coolant Leak - White Exhaust?

[crazyrog17]

This morning, while admiring my little Festy, I popped the hood to find orange fluid squirting from this (picture attatched). It's blue on top, is connected to the wiring harness and has a lot of vacuum lines connected to it.

It's located (when looking at the engine from the front of the vehicle) to the right of and just below the intake manifold and to the left of the brake master cylinder.

What puzzles me is the thing is connected to vacuum lines... No coolant/antifreeze lines and yet it's spitting it out like a miniature geyser.

The coolant level in the radiator is still full. The orange, murkey color is another question entireley. The coolant and oil haven't mixed though, the oil still looks great.

So...

What is this thing it's shooting from?
Could the coolant just be ancient, that's why it's orange?

[Safety Guy]

That round top blue thing is the IAC (Idle Air Control) valve. It must have a coolant line going into it. Otherwise I have no idea why it is leaking.

I bet it's orange colored indicating rust in the fluid.

I'll go out in a few and look at my B3.

Karl

[Pu241]

2nd the IAC!
As you haven't listed the year of your car I assume it is a EFI '90-'93.
Can only hope that your using orange anti-freeze fluid, otherwise you need to do some serious flushing of your coolant system.

[Safety Guy]

I went out and looked at both Twin's engine and Aqua's taken out engine. There appear to be two small coolant hoses going into the bottom of the IAC unit.

I then looked it up in my '92 shop manual. Refer to sections 3-04 Fuel Charging and Controls, and the how to take apart/put together section at 3-04-24.

The description is on page 3-04-7 and the schematic on the following page. It seems that the "bypass air flow" (the term the manual uses) is controlled by a thermo wax material inside the IAC unit. Perhaps yours has developed an internal leak? The schematic only shows the two top hoses, which flow air from the air cleaner and to the intake plenum. The two bottom (I can only see one in the schematic, but there would have to be two, plus I think I saw two in the actual units I looked at) hoses would be your coolant lines, providing the IAC valve with the engine temp, which it uses to measure idle air for smooth warmups.

Anyway, yes, there is coolant going to that blue topped part and you probably have a lot of corrosion in your system.

My guess would be to take off your IAC unit, get it checked, or just replace it. Then flush out your whole coolant system and put in fresh coolant.

Karl

[Safety Guy]

Went to Rockauto to look for part.

Found it:

http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/moreinfo.php?pk=817157

Try here to see if the page loads:

http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/raframecatalog.php

Nope. It just gives you the main catalog page. Go to the usual Ford Festiva and then to the "emission" section. It's the first part listed:

Click on "air check valve."

It's only $368.79. Don't forget to use your 5% off code! :p

Karl

[crazyrog17]

:tongue9: $368.97?!

Haha, well I think I'll be scouring the junkyard.

It makes sense now. I looked at my FSM for the '93 Festiva and found the name of the thing (IAC) and it's function but couldn't get to it's troubleshooting section before I had to leave for work.

It also makes sense to have white, billowing smoke now. The intake is sucking up all that coolant into the engine and blowing it out the tail pipe.

I'm pretty sure this is the original coolant too. It's NASTY. Fffantastic.

[1988festivazoom]

i have one! 30$ shipped if u cant find one at the jy

[Festiva Time]

It's not the IAC. There is a small coolant hose that runs from the Bypass pipe, right next to it, it comes up and goes under the plenum.

[1988festivazoom]

i have one! 30$ shipped if u cant find one at the jy

Comes with the coolant lines lol

[crazyrog17]

Hahaha, lemme take another look at it to see if it's something I can fix without replacing.

It might be a loose clamp or something, but I'll PM you soon if I need it, 1988festivazoom!

[crazyrog17]

It's not the IAC. There is a small coolant hose that runs from the Bypass pipe, right next to it, it comes up and goes under the plenum.

Could that make it spew white smoke like it's eating coolant?

[Safety Guy]

Yes, could be a loose clamp or split hose. All I know is that two small coolant hoses enter into the bottom of the IAC assembly. The two top hoses are air.

Karl