Leak At Front of Block

[JusTheUsual]

http://imgur.com/eHkYnId

http://imgur.com/4GrjvpR

Pics taken from driver wheel well. Why does it look like its leaking antifreeze from timing cover? Also I have no idea why that one bolt is just sticking out like that. I got more to say or questions but waiting to see the responses on this

 

[Logangray02sport]

Couldn't see your pictures but if it is the 4.0 sohc it will most likely be thermostat housing they are prone to leak I work at ford as a tech and we do see these, and on my 02 sport leak from the bottom of that housing where it doesn't show up at the top very well I thought mine let loose of a freeze plug

 

[SoHK_alumni]

Ford is notorious for having water passages in the timing cover.

Not uncommon for the gasket between the block and timing cover to start to leak.

It's a truly joyous repair -- if you're into self inflicted pain and frustration. All the fun, risk of broken bolts etc of a water pump change with the added fun of pulling the cover, getting it separated from the oil pan an then getting it sealed back up and oil/water tight.

 

[1998Exp]

That's true for the 5.0, but seems that the OP's problem is with a different engine.

In any case, this would be a good reminder for anybody posting here to specify what engine they have. The 2nd gen Explorers have three different engines, and each has peculiar problems. In particular, the SOHC V6 is very different from the other two.

Ford is notorious for having water passages in the timing cover.

 

[swshawaii]

I applaud the two of you for having your vehicle specs completed. OP has an OHV.

To others that haven't, PLEASE take 5 minutes do it and you won't be asked again.

Sticky: Add Complete Vehicle Specs To Your Profile (Thread Display Options)
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=375816

 

[JusTheUsual]

Yes my information is in vehicle specs, always has been, and getting a little tired of people asking what engine it is then to be never be heard from again about help fixing the problem.

So is my engine notorious for this problem or am I confused because everyone else is confused on what engine I have? Can we start over?

 

[swshawaii]

Sorry, wasn't ignoring your leak issue, just not familiar with the OHV. If you're certain it's coolant, why not
rent a coolant pressure test kit with a 100% refundable deposit? Almost a fail safe way of pinpointing leaks.

 

[lobo411]

I replaced my OHV's timing chain cover gasket, which was leaking at the water jackets. Not hard except for putting the crank pulley back on.

 

[JusTheUsual]

I had no idea antifreeze well water jackets were in timing cover or well behind it. I just thought chains and gears were behind timing cover. I was almost thinking people were going to say head gasket at front leaking running down. This still doesn't solve my issue though of all the power not there and when I step on gas it doesn't like to rev pass 3k rpm and hardly any power at 3k rpm.

Now my radiator excess hose next to rad. cap is leaking well more like blowing coolant all over the pass. wheel well and front right corner above bumper. Its never did that before. Its always been cut before going into reserve and reserve is full of sand and mud from offroading and clogged. So im sure that hose has been cut for a while but blowing antifreeze all over just started.

 

[morbid81]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/a5naj9im3wekrrh/leak.jpg?dl=0

So is this the same issue on my 5.0? leaking timing cover gasket? its up around or behidn the harmonic balancer

 

[JusTheUsual]

Wouldn't there be antifreeze in oil if head gasket blown?

 

[JusTheUsual]

http://imgur.com/u1wjWwF

http://imgur.com/9TxpQrQ

I have a leak on bottom of water pump so when I went mudding it stopped squeaking so I thought it sucked mud in and that stopped the squeaking. There is no antifreeze in oil and the 2nd pic I pulled out antifreeze but see no oil in antifreeze.

 

[JusTheUsual]

I just took off lower radiator hose and sprayed garden hose from top. All green came out. Now going to get radiator/engine flush kit and do that

 

[lobo411]

I have a little of that brownish gunk in my antifreeze too. Most of the fluid is clean, but a little of it seems to collect around the rad cap. Frankly, I suspect the head gasket is leaking a very tiny bit on mine, but not enough for me to tear up the truck.

If I were you, I'd clean everything up nice and good, and then monitor it. See if you can see where the coolant is leaking from, and how much coolant is being lost. There could be multiple issues that may or may not be worth the fixing (for instance, you could have a barely leaking head gasket and a barely leaking timing chain cover gasket). I think neither of these has any bearing on your loss of power issue, which is probably a separate matter entirely. Do a tune-up?

 

[JusTheUsual]

When I drained the radiator twice today, not at all did it look like oil mixed with antifreeze, just green. I got that preston super clean stuff in it now and going to drive it around for like a hour and then drain it tomorrow and put antifreeze in it. Bottle says drive it for like 3hrs with this cleaning stuff mixed with water in it. Then drain it out and put antifreeze in it.

Oh, also when I see head gaskets blow I see oil in radiator and antifreeze in oil. This brown stuff looks like mud. Could just be mud or dirt trapped in it for a while because I never seen oil go to a solid in a radiator before

*Update... Been driving around and surprised that lil bottle and just mainly water doesn't make it overheat. I drove around for a hour. Its not leaking out of radiator excess hose by rad. cap anymore. Must of needed to be cleaned and it did it

 

[JusTheUsual]

I used the prestone super clean in radiator. Drove it for like a hour and drained that out. No more spraying out the excess hose by radiator cap.

Now what about the timing cover leak. Do any of you think of or suggest like bars or k leak or something will fix that leak or shouldn't use anything or what?

 

[rodb]

Mine just started leaking in the same spot as yours, I too was amazed at how coolant could be coming from that area. I also am considering some radiator stop leak or try and silicone.

 

[lobo411]

Honestly the real fix is not that hard. It takes about a day, working at a leisurely pace, mostly at low intensity activities like cleaning mating surfaces etc...

The hardest part is forcing the harmonic balancer back on. The trick is to heat the balance in the oven first so it expands and fits on the crank easier. Once you get it close enough, you can use the old crank bolt to press the balancer back on. I found that the bolts that came with the removal tool I borrowed from Autozone worked to pull the balancer off, but they were all too short to catch the threads when trying to push the balancer back on.

If I didn't want to do the fix right, then I would just live with the leak rather than adding any stop leak. It's a minor annoyance at worst.

 

[rodb]

How hard to drop oil pan and get it to re-seal when done?

 

[koda2000]

I had a pretty bad timing cover related antifreeze leak on one of my 2000 5.0 Mountaineers last winter. I was figuring I'd need to pull the timing cover and replace the gasket and sure wasn't looking forward to that job. I friend told me about a product called K-Seal. He said he'd used it on a Explorer over 2 years ago and it hadn't leak since. I'm not much on additives and have never had much luck with them sealing coolant system leaks, but I figured what the heck... K-Seal stopped the leak almost instantly and it hasn't leaked a drop since (even after I replaced 1/2 the coolant when the bypass hose blew this spring). The nice thing about it is it's thin and will not clog your radiator or heater core. It's considered a "permanent fix" and remains in your cooling system to seal future leaks. I give K-Seal a big thumbs up! I'm thinking about keeping a bottle of K-Seal in all my vehicles just in case. An 8 oz bottle costs around $16-$18, but you can get it on-line for under $12.

I removed a little coolant from my radiator and put in the 8 oz bottle after shaking it well. Then I let the engine idle for about 20 mins. No more leak. Try it. What have you got to lose? It wont hurt anything.