When I picked up this truck it had a healthy dose of bars leak in the cooling system. I ran several cooling system flushes and cleansers through the system to figure out what was blocked up, what was leaking and what was patched.

After running cleansers and clean water for the better part of a week I developed a severe leak from the driver's side and the top end of the motor. Turns out the two leaks were the freeze plug behind the driver side motor mount and the bypass hose on top of the motor. The freeze plug had rusted through and bars leak spewed out between the freeze plug and the motor mount creating a seal. The bypass hose had a pin hole leak that only showed itself under pressure. Same scenario with the bars leak....spewed out to create the seal.

So, for $12 in parts, the previous owner opted to dump bars leak in the cooling system rather than fix the problems. I just don't get it....if there's a problem, it should be fixed not patched as it just causes more time and expense down the road. Anyway....I'm done complaining.

 

True, but some people don't know how to fix things themselves and we know a mechanic will charge a pretty penny to fix it. Seems like it was a band-aid til someone bought it.

 

The freeze plug behind the engine mount really wasn't that bad of a job. Getting the old one out was kinda fun, but, all in all, a very easy repair.

Sending my 'new to me' manifold out to the machine shop for cleaning before doing the install. I just don't have the facilities here to adequately clean it up, and I DO NOT want to introduce aluminum particles to my engine........ (I did the kegger mod to this one.)

 

Agreed, neither repair was difficult. Time consuming perhaps, but not difficult.

 

On my '99 5.2L, it took me 4 different flush and fills(in a 4 week span)to finally get rid of the stop leak and rust that the PO used to stop a radiator leak, instead of just replacing the radiator. So, I know where you're coming from on that issue.