Just like the title says...

I'm leaking coolant from somewhere on the front of my motor. Thought it was the upper clamp on the lower radiator hose but after replacing, it's still doing it. I'm not losing alot but enough and you can see where it's splattered on the front cover, belt, fan pully, etc. I'm wondering if the new billet t-stat housing from DS might be the culprit?

Also, I've noticed a noise coming from one of the pullies. Not sure if it's related or not. It's hard to describe the noise. Kinda like a shuttering/clunking sound ... ish. It's definitely a pully but don't know if it has anything to do with the coolant leak or not?

any thoughts???

 

Can you rock the fan back and forth?

 

I wonder if the noise your hearing is the waterpump bearing start to sieze up and putting strain on belts and pullies, just a thought..good luck Ryan..

 

There are two ways to tell that the pump is bad,
Most of the time a leak will occur around the front of the pump at the seal in front of the bearing. Usually the water will come out of a weep hole and onto the pavement below.
The other symptom will be the noise you hear, because the bearing has gone bad and the pulley is no longer held solidly, and the pulley wobbles on the shaft. In that case you might be able to grab the pulley by hand an move it up and down or side to side.
Nick

 

Thanks guys. I haven't tried to move the fan or pulley to see if either move. I was looking at the idler pulley the other night when the truck was running and it seemed to have some movement in it that I hadn't noticed before. Got to wondering if that was the noise I'm hearing.

I've seen where coolant has been splashed up onto the HPOP resevior so if it's coming from the weephole, is there a way it can get flung up there?

 

Mine was leaking from the weep hole right below the shaft. They are designed to leak there first when the seal goes out, if I understand correctly. I walked out to my truck and saw a huge puddle of coolant. It would stop leaking when the engine was warmed up, and start once it was cooled off.

 

That sounds about what mine's doing. Except I don't have a huge puddle. And mine lost some coolant when driving cause it was full when I checked it before leaving the other day. Then about 1/2 thru my trip, I popped the hood after several hundred miles and it was down in the coolant tank. And you could see where it had been splashed on the front of the motor. Doesn't seem to be making a puddle after parking either.

 

Hate to say it but I think your waterpump is going. Leaks from the weep hole are often flung around by the fan and that masks the location of the leak.

 

If the bearing is going bad(this happened on 2 of my s10's) It makes a loud roaring noise. Remove the belt and try to move the fan up and down. Also spin it by hand and see how it feels.

 

Don't worry. It's not nearly as big a deal as you might be thinking, if you've never done a waterpump on a PSD. The radiator stays in, you just have to remove the fan and fan clutch. I got a Duralast pump from Autozone- it think it was about $120. It came with a lifetime warranty. Then, I rented the fan clutch wrench set from them too. Their set only had a wrench that fit around the four bolts on the pulley- I had to use a pipe wrench on the fan. There is a great video on youtube of a guy changing the waterpump on a 7.3, it's easy to find.

 

The only time that coolant will be drawn from the coolant tank is when the engine is cooling and a vacuum is being built up in the radiator. This sucks coolant from the tank into the radiator to maintain the level in the rad. If you are loosing coolant from the tank while driving, you have a leak somewhere other than the water pump. Good luck with the diagnosis. Sometimes they can be a pain.

 

It may be leaking from your thermostat housing. When I put my new housing on last fall I broke one of my bolts. Went ahead and ran it until it leaked. That was a couple of weeks ago. It never leaked onto the ground and you actually could not see any direct leak, but I smelled it when driving one day and then noticed a loss of coolant. If I hadn't known the source I would have been scratching my head quite a bit on this one. Put a new pump on and got new bolts for the housing and all it good.

 

Ryan- crawl underneath with a flashlight- the weep hole is right under the shaft of the water pump on the bottom side- I'll bet thats your leak.
You might not want to run that Dieselsite stat with your big oil- Joey @ TE recommends against it to help keep oil temps down.

 

Great falls huh, Me too

 

Ryan, like everyone says, sounds like it is leaking from the weep hole. Do as Chase said and u will see. The ebst place to get a water pump would be northernautoparts.com. get the factory Airtex from them. U can get it shipped to your house for right at $90. Thats where i bought mine, and my water pump had the same symptoms as u describe.