Lol.. Thought that title might start some conversation. Well as some of you know I posted a week or two back about a leaky water pump here https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f120...sanity-150501/

Work has been trying to kill me with tons of projects and running my @ss off. And it sucks losing my main transport on top of that. So I finally got around to taking apart things (fan, fan clutch pulleys, timing cover) and noticed the water pump looked fairly new so for laughs I went "Hey! Lemme put my radiator back in and lets see where the pump is leaking from!"

So I put the radiator back in and am letting it run, revving it slightly (in my neightborhood at 10pm so prolly pissed off the older neighbors), and I'm watching and it's not starting to leak, so I just let it sit and suddenly "Oooo.. is that a stream of water I see? It is!"

"Wait... why on god's green earth is it not coming from the water pump?"

"Oh $#@$#$ @$#$#@ @$#$@#, you @#$#@, why are you coming from above the water pump and behind the backplate of the cam gears? Why @#$@##$ you @#$@#, I hate you....."

The truck laughs in my face at this moment and I shut it down and come inside with my tail between my legs.

So lemme guess guys.... Head Gasket? What else could be up there that could leak coolant?

 

i just went threw the same thing with my 88 4runner all i have to say is good luck man i feel for ya

 

Well it's official I guess....

The light of day has shown that yes indeed there is coolant coming down from behind the timing cover backplate, and I can see a nice stream running down the corner of the block above the water pump. Oil looks old (it's time for an oil change) but not watery and no oil in the coolant.

I would much rather have changed the waterpump..... That's life I guess though.

So is this a project to tackle myself or do I need to take her to a mechanic and bite the bullet (this is gonna hurt the wallet badly, I can feel it).

She developed a strange cranking issue also a couple weeks ago. Would turn over but not catch, keep trying it it would eventually turn over and run. I chaulked it up to a old fuel filter (looked like it hadn't been touched in 10 years or more), and replaced it. Problem went away and returned right before this leak appeared, chaulked it up to wires and plugs. Did them and the leak springs up. Now she is sitting on the parking pad because it the leak is a river and it takes a good bit to get her cranked. Sound likely that the HG is causing the cranking issue also?

 

The thing that the fan and pullies is mounted on is not the water pump. I'm not sure if you know this or not, so sorry if I am stating the obvious.

The fan support bracket looks like a w/p, but it is not. The w/p is located behind the front cover and runs off the timing belt.

 

Yep, lower right side of engine, lower rad hose is connected to a peice that fits over the thermostat and onto the water pump

So know exactly where the pump is and know that what the fan and fan clutch is on is basically a mount that goes to nothing and just lets the pulleys etc spin.

What I am saying though is the leak definately seems to be coming from the driver side head. But haven't noticed any symptoms of a internally blown HG.

Edit: I have the timing belt cover pulled right now and just stuck the radiator back in to find this leak. So i can see it clearly.

 

OK, sorry about assuming you didn't know what you are looking at!


If you are close to an Autozone, you can borrow a cooling system pressure tester to diagnose the leak.


I just did a HG job on a 3.0 and it was not a lot of fun. Good Luck!

 

Well it's pouring out so I think the diagnosis is complete. There isn't anything that runs between the heads is there? I didn't think there was but you guys might know something that I don't or that I missed looking over things.

All I can say is it is definately not my water pump, and no hose I can find.

And no offence at all taken to the assumption, I just REALLY wish your assumption was right!

 

There is s steel coolant line that runs from the front of the engine back through the valley to the rear of the engine. It is located under the lower plenum of the intake manifold. Maybe you will get lucky and find that it is leaking and not the HGs.

 

We can only hope.

Would the HG being externally blown create a cranking issue?

 

I don't think so.

 

The lower intake has coolant passages, as well as the upper timing idler bearing. I would look at those culprits before deciding its the head gasket.

 

Guess I need to pull the cam gears and pull that timing cover backing off so I can get a better look in there, keep your fingers crossed.

 

I would check the seal at the #2 idler pulley as well as the coolant bypass line running under the intake manifold.
Here is a pic of the coolant bypass:

http://picasaweb.google.com/Green93T...12105659722674