moms ford Taurus coolant leak help.

[Scottydoggs]

so i notice this puddle under my moms car the other day. i looked under the car saw the frame wet, touched it, and its coolant.

so today i let it warm looking for signs of the leak, once it got to temp the lim seemed to be getting wetter looking at a gasket. and the water pump housing to block also looked wet, not sure if it traveled there or not yet. the whole time nothing hit the ground.

i came back 2 hours later there was a 4 inch puddle under the car and it was coolant. i found one single drop on a threaded stud end by the timing cover.

its a 2002 with a 3.0 engine. if anyone knows if the lims are a common leak on these pos cars. please let me know. its only got 54,000 miles, little old lady owned its whole life.

pics of wet areas i found.

lim

this is a pull out of this wet gasket

its wet below the black intake.

then the timing cover but this could be a traveling leak from the lim. not sure i need to clean it up. there was some bubbled up looking crud on top of the cover, some is left on the left side, i scrapped the rest of it off, no clue wtf that was.
this is the left side of the timing cover top.

 

[FordMan77]

From what I've read on those Vulcan motors, the coolant tank, water pump and timing covers are all known suspects. I do know that if you have to replace the water pump on it, then you should also replace the timing cover gasket as well, as they are known to start leaking after a WP change (as stated below)

"It would be best to change the timing cover gasket when doing a water pump on a Vulcan as the timing cover tends to leak after a water pump change if you don't. You also need to put some kind of sealant on one of the water pump bolts, towards the back of the engine. Once the waterpump, alternator and serpentine accessories are off there will be plenty of room to take the cover off."