Hi all,

My rad had a small drip leak from the sidewall. I have been checking my overflow tank and its stayed full. The other day I saw my temp gauge got up into the hot zone, first time ever. I pulled over overflow tank was full. Later in the evening I checked the radiator cap on the hose and sure enough the hose was empty and the hose took about a gallon to refill. Temp on my truck has never passed the mid point in all this time.

This weekend I changed over to the mopar heavy duty radiator (its thicker and the one that came if you got the tow package and I tow occasionally). I then looked at my water pump which was changed and painted a year and a half ago. Its a new AC Delco and it looks like its leaking from under the pulled by the looks of it (+#1 - See the grease area in the photo). I also see some dry coolant on the hose (See #2) from what looks like splatter and the connection gasket. What could be causing these leaks?

I full flushed my cooling system (new coolant) when I installed the heads and timing chain and plenum fix over a year and half ago.

Thoughts?

 

Still looks pretty clean, but, the balancer is definitely slinging some coolant around. It may just be from one of the bolts for the water pump.... a selection of them go into the water jacket.... As for the other mess..... Not sure. It *looks* like it's coming from behind the pulley, but, there isn't any grease/oil up there to leak out........

 

It hard to tell but i don't directly see any of the bolts leaking, and i used sealant on all the ones that reached the coolant when i redid everything. To me it looks like the leak is coming from the main pulley.

The other thing i have noticed when the engine is in is that my clutch fan send a but wobbly and i hear something metal running very lightly. Seems to come and go, I'm wondering if the clutch fan is starting to go and maybe some of its oil has landed on the coolant and stuck. I just cleaned the area and will be watching it.

 

If you grab a fan blade and try to wiggle it front to back does it move much? It should have very little play. And be silent when you try to spin it.
I recently replaced my fan clutch for different reasons, but while doing research I've seen people claim that a wobbly fan/clutch like yours can take out the water pump prematurely.
Have you tried using a pressure tester on the cooling system? You can borrow them from Auto parts stores. Maybe you could pump the system up and spot the leak that way.

 

don't care how new it is or isn't. pump seal is bad, leaks out the weep hole on housing behind pulley, then the pulley and belt flings it everywhere.

 

^^^^ This ^^^^ ..... It's how I checked mine. It never leaked, but it had a good amount of play. I replaced it 9 months ago. https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen...t-removal.html

While you've got the belt off, check and re-grease your pulleys. https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen...ic-losses.html

 

"GREASE YOUR PULLEYS"? WHAT???? You don't want ANYTHING on those pulleys unless you want belt slippage and short life.

 

He was referring to the bearings in various pulleys. Chiefly, the idler pulley.

 

Good Lord, man! I even provided a link.