I have been working on a 96 Ram for a friend, replaced the heater core due to a massive leak that was mis-diagnosed as a core failure. It is still dumping water, looks like it is leaking right behind(towards rear of truck) the starter where the oil pan is mounted. I have a pic but the camera died, hoping someone can help. Will not hold any coolant at all.

 

Will not hold coolant at all with engine running? Engine not running? Kind of sounds like a freeze plug on the back of the motor.

 

+1 on the freeze plug. Only other place I can think of might be the intake manifold, but I would think that if that were compromised it would be dumping coolant into the engine as well.

 

+2 on either the freeze plug in back or the intake, i had my intake not seal up all the way and did the same thing it ran down the tranny and came off the side.

 

more info. https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen...ed-itself.html

here's what you didn't want to see.

 

The guy says it over-heated, he drove it a couple miles and parked it. Checked coolant level and it was gone... tried adding more and is when he saw the leaking. Not sure if over-heating would damage freeze plug

 

Age damages freeze plugs. Stock ones are steel. They rust out, and start leaking. Let them get bad enough, and they will literally fall apart.

Best thing you can do is crawl under the truck, and have a look. I thought I had a rear freeze plug leaking, because that is where the coolant finally dripped down. It was coming from the plug behind the drivers side motor mount.

 

+1.... sounds like an incompetent mechanic to me. How easy is it to see AF "pouring" out of specific location?

 

if the coolant leak started after the engine overheated - then it might be a blown head gasket or cracked head.

 

Would there be leaking all the way back where the starter is if its a blown head gasket or cracked head? I was thinking maybe the intake manifold gasket.