I found coolant dripping from the front of my engine yesterday. It is again coming from some high up position, seemingly behind the water pump. Earlier I thought it was from the thermostat housing, but I was wrong. It may be the front cover, but I have to check.

I thought that the oil pan gasket was the most labor intensive thing to replace; it needed the transmission to be separated, which on my van means the transfer case has to be moved as well. But the instructions I'm reading for the front cover says that the oil pan must be removed to pull off the front cover, and then has to be installed after the front cover in order to properly seal it back up again later.

Has anyone successfully replaced the front cover gasket and sealed it up with the oil pan without removing the pan?

 

Xlt4wd:

No, you don't have to remove the oil pan for that. You just have to be careful not to ruin the oil pan gasket when you put it back together. I suggest a liberal dose of RTV at the corners where the block/timing cover/oil pan converge.

It's actually a pretty easy repair. For you, young with limitless energy, I would say a couple of hours.

First the oil, now coolant? Sorry you have had such bad luck with this van.

 

Sometimes it is cheapper to add some oil, then to fix....

 

Unless the leak is so bad that you can't keep up with the refilling.

This is a coolant leak, and it may have been there seeping all along, but it got really bad after I flushed and refilled it with new antifreeze and pump lube.

IN the worst case, I end up having go through all the exercise of dropping the entire drive train again. Next time (if there is one), I'll know to start the replacement with the front components first.

 

coolant leaks are dangerous....catastropic sudden failure and END of engine....

water pump shaft seal leaks turn into seized shaft bearings and fan thru radiator

seeping block freeze plugs, rusted out plug blows...dumps coolant...heads turn to fractured glass

leaking spraying coolant in engine compartment eats up electrical system

old Y block 292 series Ford V8's were externally oil lubricated

put some UV dye in your coolant...turn off lights and use UV light to trace leak

 

There are special adds for cooland to stop leak, but if this is leak from the water pump seal, this adds help temporary.

 

Be real careful on finding this leak. A cooling system pressure tester is vital here. 4.0 engines are prone to leaking at the front of the intake manifold, just changed my gasket, it blew out on the passenger side front.

 

This is an all too familiar pattern; fix one leak, and another one pops up. I'll have to keep remembering why I want to keep this van.

Which gasket did you replace? When the intake manifold gasket leaked, did it leaked outward, or did it leak into the engine (oil pan)?

 

96 4WD suggestion of putting some dye in your coolant, then looking for the leak in the dark with a black light is the way to go. Drain radiator, refill with water and all the dye. You might be pleasently surprised to find out where a leak seems to be coming, is not actually the source. Many times, coolant will seep and flow, running along brackets, components, then drop and drip. Add fan windage, that also causes "issues". The dye will immediately show you where it's coming out, and you won't have any doubts as if "Is this the actual leak?" an old leak? Since you just added the dye, then you know it's the "present day" leak. Good luck. But this is what I'd do, as I have done in the past. (dye in plain water, or very weak antifreeze, shows up bright and clear under the light. Once it is fixed, thn you can refill cooling system with the correct ratio of distilled water and coolant).
Ed (adding my $.02 cents)...
XLT, after re-reading your posts a little closer, it seems as though you are quite sure where your leak is coming from, in which you can simply ignore my post. But in cases where it's hard to find the source of a coolant leak, I stand by my suggestion and 96's.

 

I was lucky XLT, the intake gasket leaked externally and dribbled over the heater hose which I thought was the culprit. Pressure tester cleared up that idea. Changed the hoses anyway as they're easy to get at with all the stuff outa the way. The gasket is a 1 piece from Ford and up here runs about $65.00.

 

Savage,

The intake manifold gaskets look like another daunting task to replace, so I'll replace them only if they start leaking after I replace the front cover gasket.

I've removed all the front accessories, and found the leak to be near the top of the interface between the front cover and the engine block. So I am now stuck at the harmonic damper; I haven't been able to loosen the crank nut. I experienced the same problem that someone here ran into recently; the belt clamp would not grip onto the ribbed pully of the damper.

What's a safe way to keep the crank from turning in order to loosen the crank nut? Jam something into the hole in the flex plate?

By the way, I got one of those fan clutch wrench sets for Ford engines, but it turned out that the wrench was too big. The nut was 36 mm, but the wrench looked more like 38 mm. I was able to use the big U wrench to hold the pulley. But I had to get a 1-7/16 open end wrench from Sears to turn the nut. (They didn't have a 36 mm open end wrench.) Also, my fan shroud said that the clutch nut has a right hand thread; it was correct.

 

may be if it is no leak from water pump and all the hoses are good, just add "stop leak" spray (fluid) and forget about the problem. I did it onece and i still have no problems. leakages have not appeared, when i flushed cooling system yesterday!

 

I was wondering about that. My friend had a similar leak in his 91, and he got this little bottle of stop-leak powder for $2, and dumped it in. Amazingly, his leak stopped, and he has no overheating problems that people say might be caused by this stuff clogging cooling passages.

 

I managed to get everything apart. The damper was quite a chore; it held on to the crank all the way to the end.

As I disassembled the system, I found a couple of bolts around the leakage area to be only finger tight. No wonder the gasket failed; there was almost no clamping force on it. This must be more of the results of engine vibration.

I also replaced the front main seal since I had the front cover off. It does not have a positive stop like the rear main seal does, so I carefully pushed it in place, and measured its depth at 4 places around the rim to make sure it was seated square.

After I assembled the cooling system, I made a little cap with a presta valve that I used with my bicycle pump to pressurise the system. I got about 14 psi into it, and it held, even though the radiator cap was rated at 13 psi. I then applied a little more to see if I can get the cap to vent. Suddenly, WHOOSH! Coolant started to gush out from the water pump. Either it was weak or I put to much pressure into it, but now I get to replace it as well. (^&*#%!!)

 

They do make a neon green dye-impregnated additive now, not only for the coolant, but also for oil, transmission, etc. I'm trying to remember the name of the company but it shouldn't be hard to find, just go into your auto parts store and look for some thin neon green tubes. Degrease the exterior of your engine, add the fluid, drive a little and it'll show you EXACTLY where you're leaking.