went to school this morning, truck didnt stall so i was real happy. I started to walk to class and went back to check and se if my doors were locked. After checking the locks i noticed a very big puddle of coolant underneath the truck. Had it towed to my house (didnt want to risk anything) and i get to start lookin for where the leak has come from. Im goin to first check all the hoses and stuff like that, if i dont find anything there im going to take off the belt, fan and radiator to look around the water pump. I had done the timing chain and gears a little over a year ago and had checked the water pump while i was at it and had used RTV for the gasket, and thought the RTV might have gone bad or somthin. Any ideas where else i should check be fore i start takin things Off?

 

Ya check all hoses, sometimes the return heater hose/tube at the water pump, the O-Ring on it fails quite often.

 

im about 90% sure i found the cause of the leak. The upper radiator hose where it connects to the thermostat was the highest spot the coolant went and when i pulled the hose of the metal tube was wet and had a lot of old dried up coolant on it. Where is the coolant temp sensor located on the 5.2, is it one of the 2 sittin by the thermostat?

 

FAQ man! JK Here I'll post it up.

 

Check around your water pump to.
Oils and leaks travel all over the place when you're driving. Makes pinpointing the culprit a real POS sometimes. I know I had that issue when my waterpump gasket failed on me this year.

If I recall I was once told that dodge put some silly little factory fault in the waterpumps that would leak when the gasket/pump failed. I've never confirmed that for true but its something to look for at least.

 

There is a factory weep hole in the top center of the water pump on the back side towards the engine that will let water leak out if the pump seal goes bad which is the most common failure in a water pump.

 

Hey bud, just found coolant under my truck too! The left side freeze plug between my engine block and transmission went, I was just about to post a thread about it. It's tough to get the tcase and tranny off but it's worth it. A shop wanted to charge me close to $1k. I'll do a write up about it when I get home if you don't find any bad hoses. Check the little indented silver things along the side of the engine block there should be 3 on each side if it's a v8. v6's might only have 2 a side if you have one. Then there are 2 between your block and tranny. It might also be the waterpump like the other guys said.

 

ill check into that if the hose isnt the problem. Crazy i just ended up replacing both, the sending unit was broken in half and the temp sensor was replaced because i didnt want to half to do it again for awhile, it was only $14

 

well after gettin everything put back together and putting collant back in the engine, i found out i had not fixed the leak, and being able to have a light and not being in my school parking lot, i have a better idea of where the leak is coming from. It looks to be coming from the timing chain cover. The gasket in a few places was coming apart from the outside . I have taken out the AC Compressor, alternator, belt and idler pulley before it got to dark and cold. I cant remember how i got the fan out the last time, whats the best way? just taking out the water pump? im goin to take out the radiator, i know i dont have to but i like to have as much room as possible and it will be easier for me to get some of the lower bolts on the cover. Its been awhile since i last had the cover off so if you guys have anything i should look out for, please let me know.

 

is there any special way of taking of the crankshaft pulley?