Liquid Spatter on Can? (1 Viewer)

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Here's a fun story: I changed out my radiator in preparation for moab. Not the transmission soft lines that connect to it. Few hours down the road I'm almost to the top of a pass, and guess what blows? That's right, the soft lines, which were at the end of life and the movement to disconnect and reconnect then was the last straw.

Wanna know what happened when they blew? All that A/T oil covered the hood, roof, and hatch of the car. A year later all the paint that was coated in oil was gone and the whole truck needed a paint job.

Here's what everyone should learn: don't even think of replacing the radiator and leaving the squishy tranny lines


Same thing happened to my dad on our way out to King of the Hammers in the desert. Luckily I was behind him and noticed the fluid spraying the road and stopped before any potential damage.
 
It's oil. I can smell it burning, and my oil light keeps going on an off, even though I topped up a short time ago. Always on when I start, goes off after a while, then it's on and off. Can I slow this with a heavier oil, at least in winter--or what passes for winter here in SoCal?
 
Where is the leak coming from?
 
Where is the leak coming from?
Looks like clear-ish weather tomorrow, maybe I can get a look. Could be the main seal / pump cover just got suddenly worse. That was a slow-ish leak inherited from PO.
 
Ground leak is definitely oil. As to what’s on the can, that requires further inspection. have a few more days of rain first, so they say. Main seal/pump cover area leak not new, rate of leak is. Spatter also new.


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A (very) good clean/pressure-wash/degrease of the entire engine bay (top AND bottom) would at least allow you to see where oil is leaking. Right now it's trying to mimic the exxon valdez....

cheers,
george.
 
Here's a fun story: I changed out my radiator in preparation for moab. Not the transmission soft lines that connect to it. Few hours down the road I'm almost to the top of a pass, and guess what blows? That's right, the soft lines, which were at the end of life and the movement to disconnect and reconnect then was the last straw.

Wanna know what happened when they blew? All that A/T oil covered the hood, roof, and hatch of the car. A year later all the paint that was coated in oil was gone and the whole truck needed a paint job.

Here's what everyone should learn: don't even think of replacing the radiator and leaving the squishy tranny lines
Any chance you could tell us the part numbers for those tranny lines? I just had my radiator replaced and want to make sure it was done.
 
Any chance you could tell us the part numbers for those tranny lines? I just had my radiator replaced and want to make sure it was done.
I don't know those, sorry. This was years ago
 
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Sweet mother of god dude
 
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Sweet mother of god dude
Yeah most of it came with the truck. I added a layer of Amsoil. Kinda thought things would move faster and I'd deal with it sooner. First priority now is slowing/plugging the leak; I'll clean up the axle and bay when the engine's out.
 
rust prevention!
:beer:
 
While we're in here... Recommendations for cleaning the engine bay, front axle, and anything else this oil has blown over? Specific products/tools to use? I'd like to start while the engine is in the bay, then get whatever I can't reach that way when the engine comes out. I've read that engines pre-2004 or so can't take a lot of water being sprayed on them. I can't afford to muck that up and have the truck go down unexpectedly. I also can't have this sh*t all over my driveway. I'm thinking kiddie pool under the front?
 
While we're in here... Recommendations for cleaning the engine bay, front axle, and anything else this oil has blown over? Specific products/tools to use? I'd like to start while the engine is in the bay, then get whatever I can't reach that way when the engine comes out. I've read that engines pre-2004 or so can't take a lot of water being sprayed on them. I can't afford to muck that up and have the truck go down unexpectedly. I also can't have this sh*t all over my driveway. I'm thinking kiddie pool under the front?
Does it run? Take it to a car wash. Take a bunch of auto degreaser from your local shop. They’re all pretty much the same. Gunk or autozone brand. Doesn’t matter. Purple foamy stuff works well. Just let it soak and use the pressure washer at the car wash and avoid the no-no places and you’ll be fine. No electronics, distributor, let common sense dictate. With as much crap you have built up under your rig, I wouldn’t do that at the house either.
 
While we're in here... Recommendations for cleaning the engine bay, front axle, and anything else this oil has blown over? Specific products/tools to use? I'd like to start while the engine is in the bay, then get whatever I can't reach that way when the engine comes out. I've read that engines pre-2004 or so can't take a lot of water being sprayed on them. I can't afford to muck that up and have the truck go down unexpectedly. I also can't have this sh*t all over my driveway. I'm thinking kiddie pool under the front?

Mine was in a somewhat similar state when I picked it up 2 years ago. You could see the oil dripping from the oil pump cover after shutting the truck off. I took it to a detail shop and they steam cleaned the under carriage and engine bay. Saved me a ton of gross time scrubbing it myself and I also knew the oil-y water runoff was handled in a responsible way. The shop essentially had a grease trap for this kind of job.
 
Be careful not to get water on the very top of the valve cover, it may find it's way into the spark plug tubes and short out the spark plugs. Ditto for the distributor, there are a couple of breather holes that need to be covered. Do not spray high pressure water directly at the alternator or any wire harness.

IME Purple Power, Simple Green, and most other Engine Degreasers can damage paint and rubber parts but regular car wash soap either at the car wash or at home in a spray bottle works about as well. If there's a large build-up then no matter what you use you will still have to scrub/remove that by hand. To clean up the body (painted) areas in the engine bay, that's best done by hand and a lot of papertowels.

Also avoid spraying the insulation on the firewall; that will be extremely brittle from age and will disintegrate if you hit it with high pressure water.

I cover the brake reservoir (making sure the cap is on tight) with a plastic bag as well as the transmission dipstick (pushed the stick all the way in, same for the oil stick). Also cover the distributor with a plastic bag, clean it off by hand.
 
Be careful not to get water on the very top of the valve cover, it may find it's way into the spark plug tubes and short out the spark plugs. Ditto for the distributor, there are a couple of breather holes that need to be covered. Do not spray high pressure water directly at the alternator or any wire harness.

IME Purple Power, Simple Green, and most other Engine Degreasers can damage paint and rubber parts but regular car wash soap either at the car wash or at home in a spray bottle works about as well. If there's a large build-up then no matter what you use you will still have to scrub/remove that by hand. To clean up the body (painted) areas in the engine bay, that's best done by hand and a lot of papertowels.

Also avoid spraying the insulation on the firewall; that will be extremely brittle from age and will disintegrate if you hit it with high pressure water.

I cover the brake reservoir (making sure the cap is on tight) with a plastic bag as well as the transmission dipstick (pushed the stick all the way in, same for the oil stick). Also cover the distributor with a plastic bag, clean it off by hand.
Same concerns with steam clean? So much for finding an easy way out. Sounds like it's back to Plan A: spray bottle and elbow grease... Damn. What about caked-on oil on axle housing, steering components, etc.? @Kernal
 
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Same concerns with steam clean? So much for finding an easy way out. Sounds like it's back to Plan A: spray bottle and elbow grease... Damn. What about caked-on oil on axle housing, steering components, etc.? @Kernal



watch all 3 short reels i recently made ,.


this is exactly how i would do my front chassis and engine bay ,

common sense here is , well common sense too ...


the POST FANS power drying is KEY !




 
Same concerns with steam clean? So much for finding an easy way out. Sounds like it's back to Plan A: spray bottle and elbow grease... Damn. What about caked-on oil on axle housing, steering components, etc.? @Kernal
No such thing as free chicken. Stop asking how to clean. Just go out there and start cleaning. Do you need someone to help tie your shoe laces still?
 
No such thing as free chicken. Stop asking how to clean. Just go out there and start cleaning. Do you need someone to help tie your shoe laces still?
I'd ask you, if I thought you knew how. And though the conversation and the puerile humor tempt me to engage, I find that more stimulating pasttimes beckon... Like cleaning my fish tank.

:cheers:
 
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