Truck has 150k Miles on it.

Went to leave from my house again today after it sat about an hour after running, from my drive home, and immediately started smelling coolant in the truck. Had my air conditioner on. Looked under the truck and saw coolant pouring at a pretty good pace onto the driveway. I got under the truck and saw the coolant flowing from the bell housing connection of the transmission to the motor, and also at the back area of the transmission shield. Nowhere further towards the front, so seems to be right around the firewall area.

So far I have figured it must be the heater core, but I've had nothing go into the cab. No wet carpet, no indication of a leak of the core itself.

I can't see up under that area to know where else the leak may be coming from, and my inspection camera can't get in that spot either to see where the leak is.

Anyone have any suggestions of where to start looking, what a primary cause of this leak might be, or steps I could take to determine if I have a problem with my heater core or not?

 

you could bypass the heater with hoses to see if it goes away. I am wondering if a freeze plug developed a hole in it..... your sure its not up by the alternator and running down the valley of the motor and out the back ?

 

Hard to say, it was getting dark when it happened and I haven't had a real good way of checking yet to find an exact leak location. I do notice it seems to really start flowing once the thermostat opens after the engine warms up a bit.

 

I was told this issue is under the intake manifold, which I've read a bit on. Mechanic is suspecting it to be the manifold itself that is cracked. I think i might just try and do this myself, getting som crazy price quotes for repair of close to $2000 depending on what they find.

 

photos and discussion of manifold / gaskets.


https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/8...d-on-5-4l.html

 

The cooling system pressure rises quite high after a hot shutdown for 5 to 8 minutes then begins to come down as cooling takes over.
If any hoses have gone hard or a corrosion has occurred the high pressure can blow those areas.
You just reached that point in the trucks age.
I would, in addition to repairing the specific issue, replace all the hoses being the same age and condition.
Good luck.