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Wendy,
It's sounding like it could just be hoses. You'll have to pull the aquarium cover to see into the aquarium--the area between the false bulkhead and the firewall. The cover is a flat plastic panel that runs across the car at the back end of the hood, right in front of the windshield. It's held down by several torx head or phillips head screws (the middle one is longer than the rest). The front and back edges have a rubber gasket over them.
Remove this and look down inside the aquarium with a flashlight. The blower motor and the box containing the flaps that direct the air will be in the way, but a bit left of center you should be able to see two hoses that connect to the long and short heater hoses coming from the engine. Those hoses pass through the false bulkhead.
If the leak is at these hoses the coolant (should be green colored) will drip down inside the aquarium until there's enough so that it comes out through the drain--the round rubber piece with a flap on the forward end.
It sounds as if you are leaking a lot of coolant, so a hose may be split. If you're lucky it will be a heater hose, because those are the easier ones to replace. If it's either of the ones one from the heater core it's more difficult. Replace BOTH heater hoses, even if only one is leaking. They're cheap. I don't recall offhand, but I think it may be easier to do this job if you pull the center section of the false bulkhead. Haven't been in there in a while.
You'll still have to drain coolant which is messy and a nuisance, but better than doing the whole core. Be sure to replace the two plastic connector pipes that join the heater hoses to the ones from the core, use new worm drive hose clamps (the ones with screws, not the spring type). You'll need four clamps.
Some here have used short pieces of copper pipe instead of the plastic connectors for the hoses. This is a good idea but I don't know offhand what diameter pipe to use. You can get short bits of pipe at a good hardware store. The pipe should fit snugly into the hose, but you shouldn't have to force it.
Refill with coolant when you're done and let the engine run while you look for leaks at the hose connection. Top up with coolant as needed.
Don't forget to reconnect the windshield washer hoses when you put the aquarium cover back on!
Good luck and keep us posted!
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