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Hello all,
Left the truck overnight in the garage, prob drove it 10 miles yesterday, and filled the coolant later that evening while fixing the blower motor. This morning I have a large coolant leak, dripping from the transmission (see pic). I lost half the coolant overflow tank.
Meaning the coolant leaked overnight, the truck wasn't even warmed up after filling it (maybe ran it for 2 minutes to test the blower motor, didn't check the heat). Any ideas where this is coming from?
No chocolate milk, bubbles in cooling system, no overheating.
Check the throttle body heater plate. When the gasket or 2 hoses leak the coolant will travel down the valve cover on the drivers side and end up much like your leak. In the video it show how to remove the plate, but to look if it's leaking you won't have to remove it. Cheers!
It could be leaking from anywhere. Get your flashlight, crawl under and look for signs of where it originated. If you have to, put more water in it, start the engine and then look for leaks again, crawling under if necessary. If it does not leak with engine running then you will have to pressurize the cooling system.
If you were having to add coolant in the first place then you have obviously had an ongoing coolant leak which will eventually lead to overheating and engine damage. Best to repair sooner than later but nobody can advise you for certain where your coolant leak is occurring. Anything from a loosened hose clamp to faulty overflow tank cap.
It could be leaking from anywhere. Get your flashlight, crawl under and look for signs of where it originated. If you have to, put more water in it, start the engine and then look for leaks again, crawling under if necessary. If it does not leak with engine running then you will have to pressurize the cooling system.
If you were having to add coolant in the first place then you have obviously had an ongoing coolant leak which will eventually lead to overheating and engine damage. Best to repair sooner than later but nobody can advise you for certain where your coolant leak is occurring. Anything from a loosened hose clamp to faulty overflow tank cap.
So I ran it, went under the truck, pretty big leak, keeps dripping. Couldn't see the source of the leak from under though saw the coolant dripping over the crank position sensor housing.
From above if I positioned myself correctly I could see drips from an area under cylinder 7 - is this the dreaded head gasket? The leak seems almost too fast, keeps leaking with the engine off too.
I circled the area in the following picture of where I could see the drips - for orientation thats cylinder 7 spark plug.
Check the throttle body heater plate. When the gasket or 2 hoses leak the coolant will travel down the valve cover on the drivers side and end up much like your leak. In the video it show how to remove the plate, but to look if it's leaking you won't have to remove it. Cheers!
it's still too hard for me to say. But looks like it could be working its way around from the very back judging by appearance of that filthy valve cover. You are going to have to clean this stuff up if you are serious about getting a bead on its origin. It's hard enough to pinpoint a coolant leak on a clean engine. Unfortunately the picture just doesn't say much; you will have to get your hands dirty to figure this one out. Very dangerous leak though. Not driveable in my book.
For starters though, (if you are able to deduce leaking from back of cyl head) wipe the VC and cyl head clean, get a very small mirror connected to the collapsible stick with a universal joint (your everyday mechanics gadget sold at the auto parts store) a good flashlight and shine behind that cylinder head at the firewall and stick your mirror back there to see what's going. If it was HG there usually wouldn't be that much coolant, and on the VC itself but anything is possible with all of that gunk. More like the intake manifold gasket but you will have to get more intensive or have a pro check it out if you aren't up for these type of repairs and diagnosis. Really common stuff though should you have any hesitation. You could certainly be walked through it; no insult you just didn't state your mech inclinations.
It leaks pretty good (continuous drip off the trans) with the engine on, and continues while off. I got a endoscopic camera attachment for my phone (can't see ****). I think I'm gonna dig in and go down to the intake manifold gasket, if I can't find the leak I'll go further. It looks like it's from the backside of the engine.
So I fixed the leak, was the intake manifold gasket had a large piece missing from the back of cylinder 7, also the bolt was pretty loose
Also, seems like an animal lived in here
Wasn't too easy for me, kind of new to mechanical stuff. Probably took me over 10 hours. It was possible to take off the intake manifold gasket without removing the valve covers (SAI is a bitch), just loosen the 12point 8mm bolts on one side and it kind of tilts out of the way. Also, remember there are two o-rings, one for the heater outlet and one for the coolant flow off the front of the engines, put them in backwards, got a nice river of coolant, added about 4 hours to the job.
While I was in there put in new plugs and wires, truck is running good now. Did a compression test too, everything within normal limits.
10-23-2016, 10:58 AM
Large Coolant Leak - rear engine
