That's the high pressure oil pump resevoir. If that plug is leaking, it's oil.

Do you have a fuel leak up top running down the back possibly?

 

The mystery fluid.



It doesn't smell like oil, its got a fuel smile, perhaps diesel 911/diesel fuel mixed from fuel bowl.. maybe the fuel bowl has a leak...maybe its from draining the fuel bowl, and some leaked into there..
*and no* I didn't test it for flamability, although I should have.. Not much came out of there...

Any major complications you can think of from this happening? or just get a new dust cover and bolts and get er on there nice and tight?

 

I'm not sure. It's possible, I could try and tighten that down if it doesn't then it's coming from a leak somewhere else..

I'm new to the makeup of this truck, so I'm learning as I go.

 

Looking good nice work

 

Ya, that looks like fuel in the can. The fuids from the top of the motor drain from the valley down the back side of the engine, usually over the starter. If you have a fuel leak up top, that is probably where it came from. Checl the sensors on the fuel bowl, the fuel restriction sensor is known to leak.

 

Thanks! just picked up a water pump, thermostat housing, thermostat, and upper lower radiator hoses. I didn't realize there were 2 sizes, 31" and 37" hoses. I guess mine is the 31".

The only thing is the overflow resovoir, has anyone used something else other than the stock overflow? I've seen universal aluminum ones, that are about 40$, and would be about 20$ cheaper than the original.

So if the weather is nice, I'm going to have some work, its supposed to rain all night, so who knows.. Guess I'll find out in the morning.

 

It's from when I drained the fuel bowl to let the air out to get the new filter in, it ran down the back, into the crack of the flywheel inspection cover. Which I can't seem to find. Except for this, E4OD Automatic Transmission Inspection Cover Dust Shield Cover E40D E4OD | eBay

And I'm not even sure it's the right thing..It's for an automatic.. I think the 2 covers are different.

Even jc whitney, oreileys and Autozone didn't have it.. I'll try nappa tomorrow. I guess I need to find an old 7.3 with a manual transmission and pull it off that..

 

Well I forgot it was Sunday, Nappa was closed, probably the most likely to find that flywheel inspection cover.

Got everything I need for the new cooling system. But with the condition of the current cooling system, I'm going to run 2 bottles of prestone super coolant system cleaner through it first. Even though I'm replacing everything, the hoses to the AC I'm not replacing at this time. So I plan on running the cleaner, and then flush it before I put on the new radiator. That way, I'm not getting a lot of that nasty scale, and particles from the old system into the nice new one from what I'm not replacing, and clog up the bypass filter. That, and I'm going to have to re-use the stock coolant overflow tank, until I can figure out if an aluminum overflow tank would be practical or not.

That and my truck ate the self tapping screw for the coolant bypass filter mounting bracket, so I need to wait to get another one from True Value or Home Depot before I can hook that up.

A nice 3 day's off kind of wasted, but got everything for next weekend, should have some new pictures to update with.

 

When you do the flush, open up the block drains to get most to the stuff out of there.

 

What side of the block are the drains located on? And what does it take to get them open? A simple petcock or a bolt?

That is the first I've heard of doing that, I probably need to do that too. Is that during the flush, pre flush, after, or all of the above?

I got the flush kit as well, not sure how effective it is with the flushing process, but it was only 4$, and who know' might need it again someday.

 

There is a square headed bolt above the starter, if you try hard you can get to it without taking the starter out. On the drivers side there is one behind the oil filter that that's a 1/4" extension to get it out. They might be frozen, soak them first. Its a great way to get a lot of anti freeze out.

 

Ok, I picked up some nut-off a few days ago, I'll hit them up and let them soak, the coolant system clean needs about 6hrs of driving time to work itself around and do it its magic. Should I drain them when I do the clean? I have to drain the coolant system as well...

I picked up some longer extensions than what came in the tool kit i got, so getting to them shouldn't be too bad. I get tuesday off, so I should be able to start on it then.

I don't want to think what is going to come out of there.

 

Well, new header panel is on, looks nice and not broken like the last one. Will put up a picture after the rain and lightening dies down, I still have to put in the headlight assy's, and be good to go. I guess HID's will have to wait until after work tomorrow.

EDIT:

So, It's all put on. New grille, header panel, the other headlight is finally in, and no more chrome, except the bumper. It's gonna be replaced someday, either the clips are bad, or it got bent somehow. Regardless, let me know what you think! Eventually I'll get a paint job that will match it.

 

So here it was. Saturday afternoon. Time to get some work done.

First things first. Power steering.

It turns out the nut fitting had become unseated, and blew out the line.. 35$ fix.
Honestly this part took the longest, luckily my buddy came to the rescue with the right size wrench. A pipe wrench that is haha!



Next, the coolant system.. Radiator, hoses, thermostat and thermostat housing.. Water pump is fine for now, I'll save that for another time, until then, shiny new water pump will sit in my closet waiting patiently for when its needed.

A slew of pictures on this one.. Remember how I showed how bad the inside of my radiator looked? Well you haven't seen anything yet!

My buddy had to cut the lower radiator hose to get the radiator to drain, it was all clogged up in there.. so radiator is drained!



A big container of.. Mud/rust/grimy coolant sh**... YUMMY!


And yes, before somebody asks, my buddy did drop his socket wrench in that.. At least i was wearing gloves..


Coolant is drained, thermostat housing is off.


Now for the thermostat, yea, it's like mud on that thing.


Now for the needle nose, the thermostat is really on there!! No wonder I never saw my temp gauge move!


A view inside the water pump.. It didn't look that bad.. I'll replace the water pump someday, until that fails, I think I'll be ok.


Radiator is off.. Time to make some money back with all the copper and brass that thing is made of!


And finally to put it all back together with new parts, Shiny new radiator, hoses, thermostat and housing. And power steering is better than it was before!


Well, 7 gallons of water and 2 bottles of radiator clean, I'm letting that run through any of the remnants of dirty coolant left in the overflow bottle and heater lines. I don't want to contaminate the good coolant.. Especially 7 gallons of it.. that would be expensive, and redundant.

Sorry not a lot of other pictures, especially the billet aluminum 3 core radiator, that came out of the box and right in the truck, we wasted no time. we worked quick, because my buddy wanted go mudding for a few hrs before the sun went down.

So now, coolant bypass filter this weekend, coolant, and start saving up for the fun stuff now! oh, and AC recharge.. It doesn't work and the last 2 days were over 90 degrees!

Coolant project: Complete.

 

Are you sure you don't want to change that water pump? As bad as that coolant looks, and means you're doing everything else, and have the pump, there's no way I wouldn't have put it on. The impeller could be completely worn out on the pump. Just my opinion of course.