I tried to search for an answer but didnt find the magic words to get an answer because I am not quite sure what engine parts I was looking at..

My truck appears to have a coolant leak (overflow tank dropped 1 to 2" in level over the past month or so).. I cant not see any leaks around the upper/lower radiator hoses and there are not visible leaks on the garage floor either.. The truck is not overheating.

Crawling under the truck I followed 2 lines from what I think was the inter-cooler (the lines were silver looking on the drivers side) toward the back of the engine where they went up and over the transmission. Then they both turned upward and connected into some sort of round canister on the passenger side. One of the hoses appears to be leaking somewhat..

The fluid sorta feels/looks like oil - but that could be from the puke bottle removal spraying under the truck OR it could be just mixing with junk (dirt/grease) underneath the car..

Now the ignorant question - Does the inter-cooler use the antifreeze? And could this be my coolant leak?

Any idea what I am looking at?

Sorry for being so ignorant about this..

Brian

 

no the intercooler doent use coolant. the lines that run from the rad to the trans are trans cooler lines

 

As stated above, intercooler tubes have no antifreeze in them, the trans cooler line don't have antifreeze in them either, they have atf fluid in them. I'd check for antifreeze in the engine oil, it will have a milky appearance if present, or could be a head gasket.

 

Brian, I believe what you are looking at is the transmission, water-to-oil cooler. There are two transmission fluid hard lines that go into the back of the cannister and two coolant hard lines that go into the front. If there is a leak at the back of the water-to-oil cooler (facing tranny) , then it should be transmission fluid. A coolant leak would be on the front end facing the turbo. It's also possible to have a leak on the inside of the cooler whereby you could get tranny fluid in the coolant or coolant in the tranny fluid. Neither of which would be good. If you have an actual coolant leak, check rubber hose connections; water pump weep hole; coolant reservoir crack; coolant hard line connections; coolant reservoir hose; radiator itself; radiator drain plug and I suppose it's possible to have a blown head gasket which would create a coolant leak as well. If this is the case, then coolant would get into the engine oil and turn it a milky color I believe. I hope this helps.

FYI there is also an auxiliary transmission oil cooler is mounted on the front of the radiator.

 

im new to this site, so i dont know if im posting were im supposed too,but i changed my fuel filter and now it wont start, even after starting fluid

 

A few things to consider when posting:

1) If you have a new topic to discuss, start a new thread about it. Using somone elses thread to talk about something unrelated is called hijcking and is bad forum etiquette.

2) Fill out your signature so that we know what kind of truck you have. The more info you provide, the more info others can provide for you. Help goes both ways.

3) Don't EVER use starting fluid on a CTD UNLESS the grid heaters are disconnected. If the grid heaters are activated while using started fluid, you could have an explosion in the intake - not good.


So, tell us what truck you have and we can help....but out of respect to the original poster start a new thread....and welcome to DTR.

 

Thanks for the help everyone.. I need to do some more exploring to see if I can find the leak..

I know I can sent an oil sample off for analysis - but can you sent a transmission fluid sample off as well to test for coolant?

thanks

Brian

 

From what I've seen, most large fluid analysis services/labs can do analysis on engine oil,tranny fluid, coolant, gear lube, fuel, etc.. Check out the lab you are interested in - they should list all of the fluid analysis's they do.

 

I would go over all the hoses and make sure all are tight then look real close at you water pump I have seen them leak only when hot and running . also its possible that your overflow tank has a leak next test the cooling system with a pressure test might show up the tanks on the radiators are plastic and known to leak at times