Coolant leak behind my turbo

PASTECHI

MEMBER
1997 NISSAN SKYLINE
2.5L
6 CYL
TURBO
2WD
MANUAL
63,714 MILES

Good evening.

Last night I heard a weird "tshhh" noise coming from under the hood, and saw my gauge skyrocketing to high. I turned off the car, pop the hood and saw water coming from around the backside of the turbo. I let it cool off for thirty minutes, filled the radiator with water to drive home. I uploaded two video's

The video at night was from last night when me and my friend heard it (I was at a friends house talking outside). Ignore what we are saying and hear the noise coming.

The second video was from this morning when I turned it on to go to work actually, but decide to leave the car home and catch a bus.

Feels like I have to remove the turbo to check but it feels like it is coming from the coolant mount but at the same time it looks like it is coming from behind the turbo shell. I have to wait until Friday to diagnose and see what I can find, but I have no idea where to start because I am alone on this atm.

Any help/suggestions/tips are helpful. :)

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3 Replies

DANNY L

MECHANIC
5,648 POSTS

Hello, I am Danny.

The best thing to do when is daylight out is go to your local auto parts store and use their tool loaner program and rent a cooling system pressure tester. Fill the radiator with water and pressurize the system with engine off and it will show you where the water is leaking from. Also, I circled a picture from your video with the blue line behind turbo. Is that a heater hose line? Maybe leaking from there. I have also attached a tutorial showing how to pressure test. Hope this helps and feel free to ask any questions. Thanks for using 2CarPros.
Danny-

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/radiator-pressure-test

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Wednesday, September 5th, 2018 AT 11:06 PM

PASTECHI

MEMBER
11 POSTS

Hello Danny and thanks for the reply. Well since it is hard to find a mechanic with time that knows about turbo's here. I am waiting until tomorrow so I can go to him after work.
I am a bit new to the car world so I am still learning.
Where the blue hose is, that should be the heater hose line, I think. All I know is that water goes or comes from there, lol.

The radiator stress test is an excellent idea. Any way I can take the turbo out itself and find a way to push water from the waterline and see where it leaks? Or is that too dangerous?

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Thursday, September 6th, 2018 AT 5:14 AM

DANNY L

MECHANIC
5,648 POSTS

Hello again.

As I said in my last post you should get the cooling system pressure tester. It installs in place of the radiator cap and pressurizes the system with engine not running. You will be able to see exactly where the leak is as you look over the engine and not get burned on a hot engine. Hope this helps and feel free to ask more questions. Thanks again for using 2CarPros.
Danny-

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Thursday, September 6th, 2018 AT 5:29 AM