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When I finally took things apart to do the efuel (from mark F, thanks to your recommendation!), hpop non-serviceable plug, and reservoir gasket, I discovered a lot of very slow leaks // gunk that I was able to clean up. There was a lot of oil caked up at the seam of the head gasket on the drivers side.
As far as if the water pump will solve this leak, I think its a hail mary, just another part to throw at this while I have the oil cooler out again and the coolant drained. Though everything seemed to have went swimmingly when I did my oil cooler repair, I am beginning to believe something went amiss when I did it, as when I just did a coolant flush with soap, more oil was revealed in there then I thought. As indicated in my previous post, when I saw a thin film in the coolant reservoir, I thought it was oil that had perhaps dripped into the coolant passage when I was changing it out.
My suspicion, as it stands now, is that the leak is at the front cover and is indeed oil. My understanding is that to address this leak I will need to pull the engine, so I am okay ruling absolutely anything else out! But I'll keep updating this thread to help anyone in the future out with searches. Thanks for chiming in!
My pump is from Alliant I think. I believe I had to pop in some fitting for my coolant filter kit from Dieselsite. Been a while. But if coolant out, may as well do it.
That was something I considered, hence the efuel. Its funny that after dismantling and resealing the bowl no less than 3 times over the last two years, I actually think I got it this last time, as when I finally got around to doing the hpop and efuel, the valley was totally dry. The lines going to the efuel are new as well. I just replaced the brakes and calipers while I was waiting on the water pump to arrive, I will be diving into all of that over the next day or two and I will try to take some better pictures.
I am very much hoping its not the front cover, obviously.
To bring everyone up to speed, my latest hopeful suspicion is that I just botched the oil cooler reseal somehow. I was hesitant to believe this because the reason I did the oil cooler repair the first time around, was to try and address this leak. But given that there is oil in the coolant, I think it would be foolish to discount this possibility!
I used assembly lube to slide everything together, perhaps that allowed an o ring to roll or something. I'll post more updates when I can do a post mortem on the cooler and gaskets.
It appears as though the mystery continues to deepen...
I have conducted an autopsy on the oil cooler and dont see where the leak could have come from. For reference, I would estimate that in the 8 gallons of coolant, if I added up all the oil scum, it would be 3 or 4 tablespoons at most. So it wasnt a major leak.
Furthermore, with the oil cooler out of the way, I can see that the leak is behind it as much as it is below it. That would point to the timing belt gasket. I am going to take the water pump off shortly and that will allow me to take more pictures, but here is what I have for now: clean gaskets This surface is where I thought the leak would come from, but I see little evidence? The outside gaskets both look like this Another surface that looks, to my eye, clean
This is a quick update, as I was looking closely at the oil cooler, I see that there is some seperation at the ribs on both sides. It's very minor -- is this just a byproduct of the design, and the oring does the sealing? hairline crack on the top half of the lip that the black oring sits against, 2 oclock on the bare lip you can see through to the other side
I am about to put everything back together. When I took apart the water pump, the two bolts that go through the timing cover were caked in oil, and there was the distinct sound of silicone RTV peeling away as I took them out. I am hoping that in retorquing everything down maybe the seal will be refreshed. I'll attach a picture of where the leak is now that everything is cleaned up.
On one hand, having torn this far into things, I am tempted to lift the engine and cab up slightly to address the front cover (and oil pan) now. On the other, I suppose there is a remote chance that some unseen force other than this was the culprit and putting back the water pump and oil cooler will magically solve everything.
Correct me if I am wrong, but is the existence of silicone at the seam evidence of something not being quite right, such as a previous attempt at a repair? It looked like the bolts had dried silicone on them as well.... if the gasket is functioning properly, there should have been no need for silicone, right?
I cleaned things up to reveal any potential cracks, but I believe the leak is at this seam here, probably a bit above where the silicon bleeds through
Also I should note that this picture is the space where the hard fuel lines (that I have removed for this pic) go up between the oil cooler and the drivers side head.
Okay I believe the mystery has been solved. The leak is coming from the timing cover in the alcove that the fuel lines run across. There must be a hole in the gasket or something. I suppose I will just monitor how fast this leaks and come up with a plan from there. I am tempted to see if I could just put some additional torque on the bolts that go into the block, right now they are at 18 ft lbs which is spec. Any other quick fixes come to mind?
Ive got my annual cross-country road trip from Portland, OR to Detroit, MI coming up, and I'm way too behind schedule to pull the engine at this time. I really thought about it over the weekend, but having just spent 200 dollars getting my AC charged, I didnt have the heart to have it emptied again.... in addition to all the 'while you're at it's' that I would like to potentially tackle with the engine out. If the experiences of ppl here w the moroso oil pan gasket were better I would have lifted the engine and cab and done the job with the engine on, but I personally felt like it wasnt going to be worth the trade off if the seal didnt hold.
But in the name of half-assed-jobs, I am however going to explore 2 quick fixes. I'm going to clean up the area of the leak and see about putting some TA31 there if I can get it clean enough, and I am going to see about putting a washer on the bolts near the leak and potentially torquing them a bit higher, maybe closer to 25 lbs. I did verify that the bolt were the specced 110mm. Could these bolts have stretched slightly? I measured them bottomed-out and the space left was just barely enough to hold on and seal the pump and gasket -- i think there was 47mm of space, and the pump and gasket was 48mm. Something like that. I am thinking that if I can tighten things up just a bit, that might at least minimize the leak to the point that I can buy myself a few more cross country trips.
As always if sirens or alarms are going off, let me know!
$200 for an AC charge is spicy to me! You could have bought a nice vac pump and good gauges for that.
Lots of info on here how to charge. I have posted a fair amount too.
No experience with the Moroso pan or the gasket. Someone on here probably has done it. I am intrigued by the weld in dipstick adapter. Mine has what us colloquially known as 'The Golden Nugget' to fix it.
I have had 2 experiences with the moroso gasket, both good as long as directions are followed. Both instances involve a moroso pan.
As for tightening those bolts more, be careful. Last thing you want to do is snap one. If it were me I'd just clean it real good and try and smear some ta31 over the area.
Alright, Ive placed all my faith in the miraculous powers of the TA-31 sealant... When I finally do pull the engine, I'll probably curse myself for doing this
I can think of a number of ways this could fail, so I look forward to seeing how this experiment works out... if it holds I will be very pleasantly surprised!
In general, I will also be switching from the 5w rotella t6 to the more affordable and viscous 15w t4 in case that helps as well.
