This forum has been a great help to me in the past--fixed my power steering with a new reservoir and replaced the thermal fuse in my blower motor relay-- but now my 2001 T&C has a new and wierd problem.

The motor is a 3.3 flex with 100k and for the past couple of months, after I start is up and it gets warm, it starts steaming profusely from under the hood and then the steam quits after a minute or two. The van runs fine and never gets hot (even when I'm pulling 3 dirtbikes out to the desert--I do get some funny looks though) and I can't spot ANY visable coolant leaks.

The steam appears to be coming from the driver's side of the engine where the front header bolts to the exhaust, almost right where the sheet metal heat shield is. It stops after a short while and may reappear when sitting in traffic, but not as bad.

The oil looks fine, as does the transmission fluid. It looks like I am losing coolant, but very slowly. My only guess is maybe the intake manifold gasket, or something even simpler.

Anyway, does anyone have any ideas?

 

I have a lot of ideas. One is you have a leak somewhere. Now there are several ways to test. I would use a Stant cooling system pressure tester or maybe some trace dye and a black light.

 

I'll get some dye and check it out. It is weird, it only started happening since I started parking it outside in the cold. When it lived in the garage, it never did this.

 

Yea. What he said, have the cooling system pressure checked and find the leak.