a day or so ago i noticed my heater wasnt working (when its 10 below you notice right away) so i checked the antifreeze to see if it was low enough that the coil wasnt getting any fluid and it was. i filled it up and the heater worked. next morning the same thing. i checked all of my hoses and all seems normal. so after filling it after done driving it every time for a day i was ditermaned to find the leak. tonight, i found it...kinda. from what i can see, which isnt much, it appears to be escaping from somewhere in the rear of the engine block. i cant see but i am afraid it is coming out where the block and the heads meet. could it be that i need a new head gasket? are there any other possibilities it could be?
if it is a head gasket then what can i expect to pay for a reptuable shop to make the repair? ive got a tad over 170,000 on the odometer so is there anything else that should be addressed while its pulled apart? maybe have the heads ported and polished haha.
thanks guys!!

 

nobody has any insight? ide rather not take it to a mechanic blind and have them try and sell me things i do not need. i also do not want to keep driving it if this will cause further problems... HELP!

 

Does it do it all the time

 

check the heater bypass hose, it is a small U-Shaped rubber hose directly behind the intake plenum. Just get it off, get the diameter, go to Advanced Auto Parts, get a piece of hose that is a bit longer then put that on their (note, make sure the hose doesnt crimp). If it crimps, you need a longer piece.

Im not 100% sure since, you only gave a brief description, but i am willing to bet a lot that this is your problem. There have been a lot of people asking about this lately. Mine went out about a year ago.

 

no it has never done this before.

thank you!! i will check this out tomorrow. im not sure what else to describe but will do my best to answer any questions.

 

no problem, if i can remember, ill get a pic of where mine is so you can get an idea of what it is.

 

a picture would help out quite a bit. i checked it out today and see two U-shaped hoses...both of them though look fine and don't appear to be leaking.

 

Are you seeing a puddle under the truck or does it only seem to be loosing fluid when its running if so it is probably just burning it due to a blown head gasket.

 

after it gets good and warm i will see a small drip coming somewhere in the area of the rear of the a-arms. so i know its in the rear of the engine. i thought it may be burnung it but i smelled the exhaust and it doesnt really have an "anti-freeze smell" also i took off the radiator cap after it got a little warm and watched for bubbles. the coolant does bubble but the bubbles are few and far between. i was told this was an indication of a head gasket issue... something about letting the compression of the motor into the coolant system? but i was a little unclear about that.

thanks for the help so far... keep it coming!

 

I'm in the process of a head gasket job so I'll put in my 2 cents. Is it a 22 re? You could have a head gasket leak to atmosphere. There are some coolant hoses in the neighborhood of the firewall as well, as you described seeing a puddle forming there. Assuming its a 4 cylinder, if you slide your hand down the back of your head you'll find a couple hoses. One couples with a rubber coolant hose near the firewall on one end and joins with the intake manifold on the other end. I'd suggest checking all the rubber hoses.

Can you smell sweet in your exhaust? Is your oil milky? How much are you losing? Any loss of power or rough running? Spark plugs have white fluff? These are symptoms of head gasket failure. It's not actually all that hard of a job if you have basic tools, tap & die set and a place to work. A shop will charge you about 2 thousand. Book says its a 16 hour job. Do your timing chain and a valve job while you have it apart

 

it is a 3.0L V6. i cant smell a sweet exhaust, power is minimal but it feels normal, checked the oil recently and looked exceptionally clean but i will check it again, i have not checked the plugs but will pull those tomorrow when i have the time. a couple days ago i was losing A LOT of coolant... went through a regular size can of coolant in 2 days (i think they are 1 gallon)
but yesterday and today the coolant level has stayed level (although i havent driven it more then 10 miles)
is it possible that i was low enough on coolant that my heater quit and then when i refilled, the system had a significant amount of air in the line and was pushing the refilled fluid out in order to remove the air? and now that the air is out of the system it no longer is losing fluid? possible?

the thing that scared me was the few air bubbles i was seeing coming out of the radiator when i had the motor running and the cap off. air must be getting in somewhere right? man i hope its not a head gasket, 2K jeeze
there goes my twin cases if thats the case. thanks Paulsky

 

gotta get this baby back to its prime.

 

ITS very common to have the head gasket leak on the left rear where head meets the block. It will drip down the side or down the bell housing. Without leaking into oil or combustion chamber I see it often

 

Other wise the water pipe under the intake could crack and leak in the dirrect middle in back only seen two though and they were not taken good care of 3.0's

 

I'm not sure how the 6 cylinder set up is but yeah, air bubbles are a sign of a leak. And adding that much coolant...yikes my friend. Pull and inspect all your plugs. Check around to see if the head gasket is leaking to atmosphere. I think someone mentioned doing a compression test. The tool is reasonably cheap. That would tell you if there is a compression issue potentially caused by a leaky hg or other cause. It will tell you a little about the condition of your engine too. I wish I did that but I've torn into it and so now I only have my guesses. Facts are nice to have before messing around, especially when you have to justify expenditure's like new heads, etc.

But you should see some signs of burning if its leaking into a combustion chamber. If your plugs look good and you don't smell sweet in the exhaust then try tracing down for an external leak. I assume the thermostat is opening properly and all that jazz.

Try to avoid any long haul trips until you figure out the problem.

Caveat (from previous post) - I was quoting what they'd charge you for a 22re 4 banger. Not sure about the v block. Call any reputable shop and ask. Watch out for really high or really low quotes.

 

you might want to try doing a compression test if one or more cylinders is low it could possibly be a head gasket

 

http://personal.utulsa.edu/~nathan-b...06operatio.pdf

The above diagram pretty much shows all the various hoses. The one behind the air intake chamber (the U shaped one) failed on me and initially bled off only when it was really hot. I could sometimes smell coolant in the cab when idling at a light, but with the engine running, the fan made it difficult to see anything. Eventually it failed fully and became obvious. Warm up the engine and nudge the hose, you might need a mirror to see - access to mine is a major PITA. Also, you can stop the fan as it is on a viscous clutch to help stop the air flow over the motor that makes it more difficult to see any steam escaping.

The other problem I had was tiny pinholes in the top of the radiator. Finally spotted that one night with a flashlight. The beam reflected on the steam enough for me to spot it.

I did have a previous head gasket failure, but it was really obvious in the exhaust smell and vapour. From what I understand the 3vze usually fails to the inside of the motor where it is the weakest. So if you don't have any indicators in the exhaust, my experience suggests you need to continue to look for it in the hoses and radiator.

 

What is this hose called?



I think mine sprung a leak. It's the one hose at the front of the engine I haven't changed yet.

Rob

 

So I'm thinking it's a radiator bypass hose, since it only leaks when my engine is cold. Can anyone verify?

Rob

 

it would probably help if you started your own thread....hijacker!