Question about potential oil leak at front of engine- 1984 FJ60.

[Tighe]

Howdy,

A few weeks ago I picked up my truck from Jim Dickey's repair shop, and it's running great. There were no apparent oil leaks when I dropped it off, and none when I picked it up. I know because around this time I had been inspecting it for anything wrong.

Fast forward a few weeks; I'm camping with some friends and shortly after arriving at the campsite, about 5 - 10 minutes after I turned the truck off, the top rad hose burst and sprayed coolant everywhere. Immediately turn the key to ignition to activate the (stock) temp gauge, and it goes about 2/3 or 3/4 the way up. Approaching the red, but still decidedly below. Hose was very soft and old, so assumed to be the culprit.

Burped it a few times, swapped out the rad hose, and refilled it. Required some more burping to get the rest of the air out. Been driving fine since then, without issue.

About a week ago I decided to clean up the engine bay to remove any antifreeze leftover from the burst hose. I used a standard engine degreaser as well as Simple Green, and feel I was pretty liberal in application. Now I'm getting oil and Power Steering "leaks" where before there were none. See photo of DS inner fender. There used to be no oil or PS spray here. Now there's both.

I'm wondering if I actually screwed something up or if it's residual, uncaptured oil that was 'loosened' up by the engine degreaser. The line of the oil spray seems to be coming from both sides of the belt. I will keep an eye on it and hope that it diminishes, but the quantity seems a bit concerning. This photo was taken after about 10 miles of driving - I had cleaned it prior.

Thanks for any feedback!

 

[Jesper]

This is by no means a "technical" answer, but I'll give you my observations.
When I bought my 60 it immediately crapped the bed giving me ample time and opportunity to dig into and clean it obsessively while the head was off and everything was apart. For all the issues I had, power steering leaks weren't one. Coincidentally once I got everything back together and had de-greased and cleaned everything the power steering pump started leaking on the first start up. Was dripping fluid onto the belt and flinging it around just like yours....so I don't think you're crazy. I think there's something to be said for a decade of accumulated gunk holding things in place like a band-aid. You never know what you're going to get when you "clean up". I still try to keep my engine clean, but after having issues with my battery cables and replacing my alternator as well, I think sometimes it's safer to leave things alone.

 

[Tighe]

Thanks for the response. Forgot to mention that my PS pump was a recently rebuilt version that had been bone dry until this. Ugh...

 

[Tighe]

After another 10 mile drive to work today, there was much less "spray." Hopefully it dissipates completely. I did hear some sloshing around while driving this morning from the dashboard area so I assume I still need to burp the cooling system more. And it was running a little warmer than usual (about 1/2 way up the gauge, vs the usual 1/3rd).