leak from top of motor

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jpturner928
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leak from top of motor

Post by jpturner928 »

I have noticed a water puddle under the crew this morning. after searching under the truck i lifted the hood to find what looks like a leak from the thermostat housing. has anyone else had this problem? and should this be covered by the warrenty?
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Re: leak from top of motor

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jpturner928 wrote:I have noticed a water puddle under the crew this morning. after searching under the truck i lifted the hood to find what looks like a leak from the thermostat housing. has anyone else had this problem? and should this be covered by the warrenty?
It would be covered under warranty.
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Post by HenryJ »

It could be a bad thermostat seal. This is the rubber ring that goes around the outer lip of the thermostat. Another thing to watch for is electrolysis pitting. Both the housing and the manifold are susceptible.

If you are running dexcool watch the levels closely. Low fluid levels have been blamed as the cause of coolant failure and lead to costly repairs.

Watch for leakage from the intake manifold coolant passage to the heads. There have been some with problems there. Most of those were the early 4.3L that had gaskets that were incompatible with the OAT formula used in the extended life coolant.

Another place to look is the "weep" hole from the water pump shaft. If the seal there is failing you will get leakage. This means a new waterpump.

Under warranty all of the above should be covered.

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Post by jpturner928 »

thanks , it is still covered it is a 2004 and I just broke over 15,000 miles on it
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Post by Snoman002 »

HenryJ wrote:Watch for leakage from the intake manifold coolant passage to the heads. There have been some with problems there. Most of those were the early 4.3L that had gaskets that were incompatible with the OAT formula used in the extended life coolant.
Be carefull, my truck had what looked to be the same thing (leaking thermostat housing) and it was actually the coolant coming up along the intake/head seal and it was just puddling near the thermostat housing. It ended up costing me the motor (currently awaiting the V8 for a swap).

NOTE: This was on a 91 S-10 and the intake is different, I'm not sure if the coolant could reach near the thermostat housing on the new trucks in the same way as the old trucks. The other part of this was this truck used the green antifreeze so no compatability issues with the extended life coolant.
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Post by jpturner928 »

Now would it be better to replace the thermostat with a aftermarket 180 and just do it myself?
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Post by 2kwik4u »

jpturner928 wrote:thanks , it is still covered it is a 2004 and I just broke over 15,000 miles on it
WIsh my '04 only had 15k miles....I bought it 4 months ago with 26k, and it has almost 34k on it now :(
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Post by jpturner928 »

It is nice. It even has the new smell to it. I bought it with 24 miles after the test drive in Jan 04.
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Post by 04crewvt »

I went out today to install my Optima battery and found coolant leaking from the housing. It appears to have just started not long ago as the level in the reserve tank is still ok. Guess it's off to the dealer before the warranty runs out.
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Post by jpturner928 »

Thats what I did they fixed it right up..
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Post by 04crewvt »

Thermostat gasket was leaking, they replaced the gasket and thermostat and everything seems to be good. Still has Dex in it, they wanted $120 to powerflush and replace with green so I passed.
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