it was the heat exchanger / water tank heater

the black plastic portion of it, has what appears to be a seal/w spring that whole thing came apart. so the coolant was indeed ending up in the water tank. anybody have any suggestions on where I can get a piece of steel tube? so i can bypass the water tank heater? no sense of spending 156 when summer is coming along, and i do not live on a climate where water freezes. (at least yet).

I did purchase an OEM water tank, its the same # as the old one but it doesnt seem to fit correctly :(

and to top it off (plastic is brittle so the connector of one of the washer pumps just crumble) so now I need or maybe that can wait too... (its for the one that was leaking.. hose goes to the headlamp wipers