Could really use some help. (1 Viewer)

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Oct 31, 2015
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Location
Santa Rosa beach, Fl
So about 3 weeks ago all the radiator fluid leaked out from just under the intake on the left of the pic and in between the two exhaust ports.

I honestly have no idea how much I need to tear this down to get to the hose. I'm guessing it's one of the bypass hoses in this area of the engine but honestly taking off this much motor is beyond my level of understanding and I refuse to pay a mechanic for 10 hours of labor. So I've been peicing it a little at a time. I'm kinda running out if time, my kid needs this car to drive and I have to get it done.

Any advice on how to get this done would be great. I've searched like crazy on the site and either I don't know how to use a search function or the posts that are on this topic aren't answering my questions.

Thanks guys.

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@jonheld is the man to ask about the 3FE. Tagging him should alert him to your need.
 
Uhhh...there are no coolant lines in that area. The only coolant lines that are close are in the throttle body. Most are on the right side of the motor and the front of the motor.
Inspect the throttle body and associated hoses.
It wouldn't hurt to throw in some details about the truck, maintenance issues, brief history, etc.
 
Well that would explain why I can't find any hoses in that area.

I'll go over the throttle body with a fine tooth comb but fluid was shooting out from under the area of the exhaust manifold and intake manifold on the left side of the picture above. I don't know what that might mean, but I do know when I filled up the radiator and let it warm up that's where it was spraying out from.

It's a 92, with 265k mile . Don't have a lot of maintainence history for it. I haven't done much to it since I bought it. Has a slow leak at the water pump and mostly runs pretty good.
 
Sorry, that's just where I'd start looking. Pressurize cooling system (rent tool at parts store) and start looking. Thats what it sounds like to me. 3FEs are tough old things but its not an unheard of failure.
 
If your leak is that bad, slightly pressurizing the coolant system should tell you where the leak is, pretty quick. You could use the hand pump pressure testers you can rent or use a regulated compressed air source, say 15 psi, with a blow gun and a rag in the radiator and then just listen for your leak.
 
The second pic has a coolant hose shown right downward of the oil fill cap. There are two that go that way from the passenger side of the thermostat housing. I'm not thinking head gasket.
 
Yeah, but the leak wasn't coming from those hoses. It was coming from directly below the intake on the left. It was coming out under very high pressure and only after it warmed up.
 
Unfortunately you need to recreate the leak to find the exact source. Testing as others have mentioned or put it back together to locate.
 
I'll see if that's it. It's exactly where the fluid was coming from. But I was unable to see it with the little cover that was on the exhaust manifold.

Not sure how I'll be able to test that now that it's all taken apart, but I'll just replace them while it's torn down and see if the problem goes away. If it doesn't, then I probably have a much bigger issue. Which would be surprising, this thing hasnt given me a single indication it was ready to blow a head gasket. Maybe it's just wishful thinking, but I think that freeze plug may be the culprit.
 
I was wondering about a freeze plug.

Is it visible in that image or will I need to take off the exhaust manifold

Yes, this pic was taken last night after removing a dead alternator on my son's 92. I would think/hope under close and careful inspection you should see where it was spraying out of without recreating the leak.
 

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