Water leak help please!!

Ok, so about a week ago while stopped at a light my truck temp shot up and started smoking. I immediately killed the engine and let it sit for a second before starting it again to pull it off the road into a mechanic shop driveway 100 yds away. The truck never died.

The mechanic came out and we looked it over. He said I had a crack in the radiator, I refilled it with water then drove home. I ordered a new radiator but this truck is my DD so I continued to drive it to and from work, topping off the radiator every time I stopped.
While doing this it never overheated again.
I JUST got the new radiator installed, and filled it with water only to see a big water leak above where the lower hose from the radiator attaches to the engine. WTF?!?!
The video shows the leak from under the truck.
Can anyone identify where it’s leaking from? Thanks in advance

 

Video?

 

Don't know much about your setup but I would check the water pump weep hole. Common place for a leak in the area you describe.

 

I tried to upload a video but it won’t let me.

 

Upload to YouTube then share it here. Can’t upload video directly to TW.

 

Ooh ok!

 

Just had too change mine out for same reason, and Exact same scenario - have been trouble-shooting this for a few days now... I think it may be the water-pump seal/gasket behind where the inlet connects ... bothersome as hell. My water-pump is working fine, not really looking forward to remove/reinstall due to gasket failure :/ I may try and get some high-temp gasket maker up in there. Keep us posted and I will do same.

 

ps - only leaks when Cold.

 

Hmmm? Proper antifreeze is 50% water anyway. Its the pressure regulated by the radiator cap that keeps it from boiling, not a chemical property. (Nope - read below)

On the other end of the scale, the antifreeze lowers the freezing point so you don't break things in the winter.


That said, water isn't great to use for other reasons. Regular water is full of minerals that you don't want. Distilled water is ok, but you're still missing out on the other additives in proper antifreeze that slow down corrosion and lubricate the water pump, if i remember right.

 

umm. regular 50/50 coolant mixture raises the boiling point by 25 degrees. It's the chemical property that does this. Everything else is correct with regard to mineral precipitates and deposits, and lack of lubrication for 'modern' water pumps. Back in the oldy times water pumps were packed with grease and had an actual grease fitting to keep them periodically lubed. Not to mention protection against galvanic corrosion. Which is why, if you run only water, you need to put a sacrificial zinc annode in the radiator. Like in the oldy times.

 

What year is your truck? I own a 2003 basic cab. One thing about that year is that the water pumps were factory produced using caulking rather than a solid gasket. This lead to leaks (sweating) if they weren't perfectly caulked. The remedy was to replace the "sweating" water pump "caulking" gasket with a "solid" gasket.

 

Turns out you're right. Time for me to go back to chem class.

https://durathermfluids.com/pdf/techpapers/pressure-boiling-point.pdf


But its also a function of the radiator cap - pure water boils at 242F with a 12 psi cap. So you can run just water, but its safer to do antifreeze.

 

absolutely, it's a combination of the 2. Add the pressure and the chemistry and you can drive through Death Valley with the AC cranked and never boil over. Back in the day, a certain car manufacturuer had a 'hot weather package' you could add on when you bought the car- it consisted of air conditioning, a slightly darker factory tint, aaaannndddd: a coolant reservior cap 3 PSI higher in pressure.

 

Water has about twice the specific heat capacity of ethylene glycol, so it takes twice the engine heat to raise it the same temperature, so you may not get as hot in the first place to worry about boiling. Of course the radiator also needs to take out twice the heat from the water to lower the temperature, so pure water may not cool much better than a mix.

The 50/50 mix recommendation takes into account and balances the specific heat capacity of water and ethylene glycol, the higher boiling temperature and lower freezing point, and the corrosion inhibitors of the coolant.

The corrosion inhibitors will wear out after several years, but you will still have 50/50 water and ethylene glycol which will continue to cool fine. This is why people put off changing their coolant. It's not overheating, but they don't realize the corrosion happening inside the engine.

 

Probably the leak is from where the thermostat is. Inspect the thermostat and the inlet that goes from the hose into the engine.

 

ah no man, I use too red w/ mixtures. also, replaced hoses - they were actually in pretty decent shape. Upon further inspection it seems that my leak is water-pump seal behind inlet ... maybe failing wp(?), but I am not positive of that yet either. gonna take another look today. I did have the wp rplaced along w/ timing belt when I bought it about 120k mi's ago. I def see sign of paper gasket was used when last done. It may be that the cracked radiator was a symptom of an already leaky pump that went unnoticed over past several months during the 'rona w/ only spontaneous movements 1 or 2x per week ...

 

*Toyota Red w/ proper mix w/ distilled

 

Did this - actually kinda started there - after several wiping and waitings for drips ... it appeared to be from behind (pump inlet) ... bummer. I think this is what I will be doing this week as well.

 

I'm pretty good about spotting leaks and other etc issues that will stand out like this (ground puddle) so I would think I woulda caught this sooner

 

Replaced my radiator that was leaking and 2 months later my water pump shit the bed, weeping like crazy, bad seal. Installed the kit from aircabinman on eBay. Arrived in 3 days.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/15-Piece-3...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649