Large coolant leak!

[Storz]

Driving home yesterday I thought I smelled a bit of coolant, it was nice out so I had the windowns down. Temp gauge never flickered so I didn't think much of it, well when I got home and parked the truck the smell was really strong, took a step back and it was pouring coolant onto the driveway.

Popped the hood and looked around a bit, seemed to be coming from up high near the drivers side bank, close to the firewall. Anything obvious back there that could rupture/break and cause a big leak? I am really hoping its not a headgasket, but I've heard those gerenerally don't fail and dump large amounts of coolant out, and I checked the dipstick and the oil was not milky at all.

Going to have a friend pressure test it tonight.

 

[1mitch1]

throttle body heater

 

[Storz]

throttle body heater

Yeah I am thinking that may be it as well, it is all gunky looking...

 

[cosmic88]

Also...

check the in and out hoses for the heater (above R valve cover). These could also spray across the bulkhead. Just a thought. Good luck.

 

[Storz]

Appears to be an intake manifold. Going to start tearing it down this weekend. How hard of a job is this?

 

[overlander]

I just did it for the first time, and you can do it in a half day by following the manual, but I seriously doubt it's the intake manifold. there is no coolant points related to the intake manifold. If we are talking about the drivers side (LHS) then the only coolant points to leak that I can think of are the throttle body heater up top, the water pump, the upper radiator hose and the head gasket. all four of those are easily visible. all the other coolant lines are mostly on the passenger side. A leak that big should be very easy to source. My new best practice is to keep flourescent dye in the coolant all the time for times like these, and my pen blacklight on hand. all available at NAPA for under $30.

 

[Storz]

I just did it for the first time, and you can do it in a half day by following the manual, but I seriously doubt it's the intake manifold. there is no coolant points related to the intake manifold. If we are talking about the drivers side (LHS) then the only coolant points to leak that I can think of are the throttle body heater up top, the water pump, the upper radiator hose and the head gasket. all four of those are easily visible. all the other coolant lines are mostly on the passenger side. A leak that big should be very easy to source. My new best practice is to keep flourescent dye in the coolant all the time for times like these, and my pen blacklight on hand. all available at NAPA for under $30.

Thanks for the info, I am going to replace the throttle body heater first since it is visably gunked up, and then go from there. The leak is def coming from up high somewhere.

 

[MatthewThompson]

How about the weep hole in the center of the upper rad hose? Dry?

 

[Storz]

How about the weep hole in the center of the upper rad hose? Dry?

Haven't checked it, though the leak seems further back towards the firewall than the radiator hoses...

 

[nely]

Doing a pressure check will tell you exactly where its leaking at. No throwing parts at it like a tb heater or intake. Did your friend do a pressure on the cooling system?

Sent from my SGH-T959 using Tapatalk

 

[Storz]

Doing a pressure check will tell you exactly where its leaking at. No throwing parts at it like a tb heater or intake. Did your friend do a pressure on the cooling system?

Sent from my SGH-T959 using Tapatalk

Yeah we pressure tested it last night and it was def leaking from the throttle body heater plate a bit, but the amount coming out made him think it was something else as well. So either way it needs the TB gasket, which I just ordered the kit from AB. If that doesn't fix it totally then I'll dig deeper.

The main place we saw coolant flowing from whas right above the exhaust manifold, drivers side bank, right where the valve cover meet the head...which really makes no sense and makes me think the coolant is running from the TB down the valve cover and thats where we are spotting it.

No milky oil at all, and no oily coolant...

 

[Storz]

I think I am going to bypass the TB heater plate temporarily tonight to see if that stops the leak.

 

[Storz]

Well heres to hoping I found the problem, pulled the TB heater plate off today and it has definitely been leaking. The entire valve cover is wet as well making me think the "leak" I saw near the firewall valve cover area was actually just coolant making its way across and down the valve cover. New parts on the way from roverparts.com. Fingers crossed.

5 minutes after I parked it

This is where I thought the leak was from

Wet valve cover, though there was a bit of coolant on the plate when I took it off...

Underside with gasket still in place

Plate

 

[overlander]

I reinstalled my wifes with just hylomar sealant and it's holding just fine.

 

[ExpoScout]

Did you get it all sealed up yet?