diagnosing coolant leak, water pump?

[dickendd]

Hi guys, this is my first post here, although I've used the forum for help a bit in the past. I recently replaced my heater control valve on my 94 xlt after it started leaking after an overheat, and now I'm seeing a leak from somewhere around the water pump, but I can't tell it it's the water pump or something else. Can anyone tell from this picture what it is?

The picture is taken from the passenger side of the vehicle. The leak is coming from where you see the whitish bubbling right above the altermator in the picture, inside the red circle.

Thanks for any help!

 

[1Byounkin]

Might be the lower intake gasket. Mine did the same thing. Stop leak will not fix it. You'll be better with a gasket replacement. Not that hard to do with regular tools and know how.

 

[Anime]

The hose clamp right above the red circle in the pic goes to the water pump, so the leak is either the hose itself (loose clamp, old hose, etc.) or the pump. The thermostat housing is also right above it and loose bolts can cause coolant to seep out from the housing. If you want to, you can try and tighten the pump bolts and thermostat housing bolts and see if that fixes it first before taking things apart.

Certain coolants (Dex-cool, Prestone, etc.) seem to attack the water pump gasket and cause leaks. I'd suggest just changing the coolant if you have no idea what's in there and maybe changing the hoses/thermostat while you're at it.

Use something like Zerex Original Green or Zerex G-05 (the yellow stuff they use in newer Fords) for coolant and you shouldn't have any more gasket leaks, or at least any caused by eaten gaskets.

 

[dickendd]

Thanks for the responses. I ended up taking it to a friend's radiator shop, but haven't heard back from him yet on it.

Would basic Advance Auto Parts coolant attack gaskets? That's what I had filled it with right before this happened.

 

[Anime]

As far as I've seen, AAP's coolant is just re-labelled Prestone. The containers are exactly the same, even the yellow color. Not too hard to tell.

Prestone used to be good stuff, but they changed their formula in the past few years and now their standard "green" stuff is about the same OAT (Organic Acid Technology) as their Dex-Cool formula (also OAT) which is well known to eat gaskets of any other systems that aren't designed for it (mostly GM products). I didn't realize this for awhile and had a lot of coolant issues and leaks as well.

Switching to the Zerex G-05 has fixed the leaks and other issues. The same would happen if you used Zerex Green, which is the same as the old green antifreeze you used to be able to get everywhere. NAPA carries Zerex.

I'd suggest having your friend completely flush the system, and use Zerex G-05 or Zerex Green.

 

[dickendd]

Thanks Anime, I will see if he can put the Zerex into it.

When he looked at it, he couldn't see the leak like i saw it, and said it was probably overheating at the time. He says the thermostat is probably bad, and thinks that will fix it.

 

[Anime]

Perfect time to flush the system and replace the coolant, and any hoses as well.

I'd suggest either a 195 degree Stant Superstat ($5-6) or the $22 Motorcraft OEM thermostat. Don't have him put a cheap one in.

The radiator hoses look fine, but looks like the heater hose (the smaller ones that go from the heater core to the water pump/block) could use replacement. Just 5/8 hose cut to size works fine, using the stock webbing from the old hoses for protection.