I remember the steering hardware gets a good soaking when a drip is there. Paper towel on the steering hardware and a good whiff will tell you if it's fuel or not.

 

I always use the taste test if I can't tell by looking, it probably explains alot.

 

If it's sweet, you've just poisoned yourself with antifreeze. If it burns your mouth out, it's fuel. Yeah... good testing procedure.

 

Ok, I finally crawled under the front end and found this. . .



The black dot in the center of the silver rectangle is oil, plain and simple - no idea where it's coming from.

I believe what I have been seeing on the driveway is a mixture of condensation and oil from whatever is leaking to the right side of the radiator (in vehicle right).

Here's another shot looking straight up from where the leak is happening.



It's coming from somewhere high and been doing it for quite a while. Here is a shot of the side of the radiator. It appears the previous owner hit everything with a pressure washer and failed to get the 1/8" of oily crud off entirely





A final shot of the right frame. . .




I have no time this weekend and will be traveling next weekend so I'ts not getting fixed anytime soon.

Open to any suggestions as to what may be leaking.

 

Lower CAC (intercooler) boot maybe? It looks pretty dusty but if it was leaking enough for oil to drip I would think you would have boost issues too.

 

That looks like a boot drip, which would make me want to pull the boot and look inside the IC for a flood. It could be coolant from a crack in the degas bottle or a bad clamp on the lower hose.

So much for me winning the lottery on this one. The asphalt sure looked like a fuel leak... I blame the camera angle.

 

Just realised I posted in the wrong year. I was doing a search and this thread popped up. Thought maybe I could give a suggested leak point and get an answer , don't know if the years are capitable. Feel free to boot me back in time....
1995 7.3 .E4OD...

I've got a small leak,a couple of drops a day, from my lower radiator support. I just crawled up under it and it looks like the fittings for the transmission lines are leaking. No transmission fluid but actually leaking around the fitting in the radiator on both of them. Definitely anti freeze droplet on the lower support.

How long before this self destructs or is there a way to replace the seals in those fittings.
I went in figuring the pump was leaking. It looks good other than a small seepage around the inlet neck to pump gasket. Doesn't look to be leaking down the sides just moist around the gasket area.

Any suggestions for a radiator if it needs replaced?

 

I know very little about the details of these trucks other than the 7.3 engine has good marks for longevity - the #1 reason I bought this one. Also, I have a 6 speed manual and wouldn't expect to have a transmission cooler/hoses.

As for all the responses, much appreciated. Are there suggested parts I should have on hand if I were to take it "off-line". This is my daily driver.

Thanks

Hey, I forgot to ask, is oil in the intercooler common? I recently finished a 1.9 VW TD AAZ swap in a vanagon and added a water to air intercooler. I took a lot of pains to make sure no oil reached the unit as it would have dropped in efficiency a huge amount. Unless oil in the IC is there for a reason (to cool the oil maybe?) this doesn't sound good.

 

To answer that, here is a photo of the inside of Stinky's intercooler, looking toward the bottom. There is a little oil vapor and some condensation - this was at about 270,000 miles:

 

Thanks Tugley, looks pretty clean to me. Hopefully mine will be that clean.

On my 1.9, there is only two ways for oil to reach the intercooler;
The crankcase vent, or bad turbo seals.
On that engine, I vent my crankcase to a bottle and the turbo is a new Holset and doesn't leak oil into the intake. As I said, I'm too tied up to get into it soon but when I do, I hope it's nothing too serious.

Thanks again for the replies