Massive coolant leak

Hey guys, went to start my mk2 after it sitting for a while and the reason it was parked up was it’s been overheating. Anyway, I went to top up the coolant via a hosepipe... only to notice that it was taking a lot of water and then all of a sudden a stream of water flowing down the back of the engine. Does anyone no what’s going on and if it’s a pipe I can replace or have I got block/head issues?

1985 GTI with a KR I believe. It’s a 16v I know that for sure anyway

 

No one could say without looking. Could be a core plug/frost plug after popping.

 

Yeah sounds likely, hadn’t thought of that. I’ll have a look. Do you know what mm they are? Heritage parts centre seem to have a few. Cheers

 

It’s non turbo, I’ll try get a proper look tonight anyway

 

Never had to replace one on a mk2 tbh.

 

This is either a frost plug or a coolant hose most likely - are the coolant hoses, thermostat and water pump - original/old? If so then now is the time for a changeout. The stat stuck closed on my old 16V and as soon as the car was idling, you could see the temperature needle heading right pretty damn quick - replaced the stat, coolant and pump (as a precaution) and was right as rain after that.

 

I’ve never had a core plug go but could be that? Check your metal pipe that runs up the gearbox bell housing, had one of those go but it was only a dripper.

 

I'm unsure exactly where, but my neighbour has a mk2 sat in his garage, about 4 years ago he had a leak, and what was thought to be either pump or outlet split (cant remember) actually ended up being the block corroded behind it. So that's why been sat there so long.

 

If you leave plain water in the cooling system it will rot the core plugs out. Seen it a few times on motorcycles.