Well I thought the coolant outlet gasket by the alternator was where my leak was coming from. Pulled off pulley's on right side and its mounting block to get a better look. (of course its just pulled forward against the fan since I didn't pull the fan yet. was hoping I wouldn't have too. The leak is below the the outlet and toward or against the block. I keep thinking its the head but my mechanic friend thinks the engine is running too smooth to be indicative of that. Its definitely on the right side. Anywhere else to look? I'm finding the leak by using a pressure test at about 15 pounds pressure. I can see the drips from below but just having a hard time identifying the exact source of the leak.

 

How much coolant are you loosing? Your engine will or can still run great with a very small head gasket issue. You say you can see drips from just below and stopped " just below where"?

 

Wouldn't trust that mechanic, go do a coolant pressure test, you will find the problem real fast.

 

Ive being 45 years on the trade, , I,m a senior mechanic with most experiance in CANADA
I sugest that your leak my come from FROST PLUGS look under the exhaust manifold
area
jl

 

I'm using his pressure test kit he has loaned to me. Its a constant drip off the front right side of the block. Can see it from underneath but couldn't find the exact location of it. He brought his scope and we could see evidence that it has been doing so for a while but too much stuff in the way. So I started pulling off the pulley's on the right side and got the housing for it out of the way. Its leaking somewhere underneath coolant outlet. I thought that gasket was bad but when I got everything out of the way, I can tell it is coming from below there and being blown up by the fan.

Found a leak in another hose today which was making it hard to keep the pressure up so will get that one locked down and try again so maybe I can get a better flow out of it. When the engine was warm, it was a steady stream. However, it didn't seem to really start up like that until the engine was warm. Now with everything off, just doing it with the pressure tester.

 

The leak is from the front of the engine, not on the sides. I had thought of the freeze plugs as well, but back and sides of engine look good.

 

By the way Mike, my friend who is the mechanic never said it couldn't be the head, just with our quick look the other day with the scope, made him think it was the oring gasket on the outlet. Especially since the engine was running very smoothly.

 

His statement about it running to well to be head gaskets is what I was referring to, an engine can run well with a minor head gasket leak and never give any indication of a problem, other them a coolant issue of course.

 

timing chain cover is a pretty common leak on these things, a lot of times it will blow up under the ac compressor or alt. making you think the leak is high than it really is.

 

That would make sense with what I am seeing. Will check that out.