collant flow back in to holding tank

Either the hose between the tank and radiator is plugged or unhooked. Or you have a leak(internal or external) in the cooling system. Depending on what year, make, model you have you could be in for some fun. good luck! snipped-for-privacy@peru-motors.com

its a 85, 4.3 vortec V6

Greetings,

Consider first that a certain amount of coolant will flow to and from the overflow tank in a normal motor as it heats up and cools down. However, you could have either a bad radiator cap that is not holding the proper pressure, air in the system or a weak hose that is bulging and collapsing. Change your radiator cap (cheap), check your hoses and replace any that are in need, and purge any air from your system.

Cheers - Jonathan

lethsv-are you sure you didn't mean 1995 4.3l v-tec-don't believe ther was a 4.3l v-tec in 85. Anyway-these engines did have some coolant issues. Are you using coolant or should I say loosing coolant? jp

messagenews: snipped-for-privacy@localhost.talkaboutautos.com...

yes it is a 1995 its not using or loosing anything its is just going up to the holding tank and from there i put it back to the radiator

lethsv-try as mentioned earlier a new cap. Get a quality name such as Stant. This would be a cheap first step if as you say-anti-freeze is ending up in the overflow making the radiator low. good luck jp @ peru-motors