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Puking coolant between the oil pan and transmission pan?

F

Fahrenheit

New member
Driving home from night work this morning. I notice little smoke form under hood and a touch of a sweet smell. My temp was good so I got it home and started to look around. Well it's leaking coolant, between the oil pan and the trans pan on the driver half of the engine. Engine oil looks good. Replaced UIM/LIM gaskets about 20k ago so so i'm fairly sure it's not that. No CEL and it runs smooth, could it be head gaskets or maybe a cracked block? I can't get a real good look at it till Monday but i'm prepping for the worst.
 


rear block cover is quite likely. its what holds the rear main seal to the block.
with the car on a lift and the converter covers off you should be able to see it pissing out.
it could also be the small end cover on the LIM or a T stat /LIM leak thats just draining down the bellhousing/block flange
 
Don't think its the stat housing. I don't see any running water from that area. And it's a good stream coming from the engine when its turned on and has water in it. Guess i'll have to live in suspense till I get to jack her up on Monday. Don't have a good feeling though, just going by where it's dripping.
 
sounds like a rotted out freeze plug to me. get the car in the air, a flash light, fill the coolant, fire it up, get under it and look.
 


Fahrenheit said:
Can freeze plugs be swapped while engine is in the car?
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no they cant, not on that side, ive heard of one guy here who was able to pry the bad one out and got a block heater installed.

to install a real freeze plug you need to hammer it in, theres no room to swing a hammer or line up the install tool with the engine in the car. either the tranny, or the engine would need to be removed.
 
...if its the front bank...the rear....you could probably knock it sideways and yank it out but youd have to get an expand in place plug to fix it as your not gonna be able to hammer a std welsh plug into the hole with the trans there
 


http://i.imgur.com/EhBcbjF.jpg

Here is what i'm looking at, freeze plugs are dry as a bone, knock sensor is dry, little moist up top around the TB but It just went, not running with coolant. I took off the converter cover and looked. Seems like it's the rear engine cover gasket but I can't get a good look at it. The leak is like a stream of pee after a 3 hour movie and a gallon soda. The motor for sure has to come out for this and I gotta think if its worth it. Car runs good, rebuilt trans with less then 20k on it. LIM gaskets done about the same time. Body is kinda beat but no rust. Needs struts all around and upper and lower control arms. Unless you guys can see something I don't I gotta sit and think if it's worth me fixing. I'd tackle anything in the drive way besides pulling the motor. Unless you guys can see some other cause of the leak I gotta sit around and think if its worth doing. Shop labor is gonna be like 500 easy to pull the motor. Ughh


Let's just say I drink enough beers to try and pull the engine. Is there a guide around to kinda lead me? I know a guide for something like pulling the engine is silly but I follow the guide for the LIM gaskets and it turned out. I got a bunch of hand tools, would only need a cherry picker and harbor fright sells them cheap enough. I got all the time in the world to try and do it and have another car in the mean time.

EDIT: Just found the BillBoost37 write up for pulling the engine, that looks like something I can do and I always wanted to try and do it. If you guys seem to think its the rear cover gasket i'm gonna go ahead and try and pull the engine. I figure ill do valve cover gaskets and rear spark plugs while it's out anyways.
 
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did you start the engine and watch the leak? make sure its the rear cover for sure before tearing the engine out.

if you end up pulling it, good time to change the oil pan gasket with the rear cover gasket.
 
Scottydoggs said:
did you start the engine and watch the leak? make sure its the rear cover for sure before tearing the engine out.

if you end up pulling it, good time to change the oil pan gasket with the rear cover gasket.
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I did start the engine and watch from all sides, I still can't pin point the leak on the bottom, looks like its just running down the fly wheel. I can just say for sure it's not coming from the top. I figure ill do valve cover gaskets, oil pan gasket, and the rear cover gasket. Anything else I should change/check? Might just do the TB gasket to while I got easy accesses.
 
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Engines gasket kit will ahve all the gaskets... Might as well change lim gasket, TB gasket, tranny fluid, filter & gasket, all while everything is apart, lol. Me? I'd do brake fluid, plugs, wires, gas filter, air filter, etc... Everything and all at once. One & done and good for another 150k
 
coolone said:
Engines gasket kit will ahve all the gaskets... Might as well change lim gasket, TB gasket, tranny fluid, filter & gasket, all while everything is apart, lol. Me? I'd do brake fluid, plugs, wires, gas filter, air filter, etc... Everything and all at once. One & done and good for another 150k
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LIM and Tranny fluid has like 20k on it tops. Some for brake fluid, did a 100% total change a few weeks ago. Plus might be a good idea though lol. The only gasket set I see on Rock Auto comes with the head gaskets and what not. Not gonna pull the heads off. I'm looking on rock auto and see a bunch listed, not sure what I want as far as Fel Pro rubber vs Fel Pro PRFE. They got an AC Delco one at the bottom but it seems it's only the rear main seal. Here is what i'm looking at.
DXbLBnU.jpg
 


look up whats called a lower conversion kit. has all them gaskets plus the oil pan and a few others for about 30 bucks. ( no head gaskets or lim. just the bottom of the engine)

change the rear main seal, not the front crank seal. the odds of that one leaking are real. best to leave it alone.

the rear cover you want to rtv the bottom 2 inches of the gasket on both sides, the pan gasket do rtv on both sides of the gasket, i did a smear on the block and the pan.

that rear cover is a very low tq, the bolts maybe hand tight right now. add a dot of blue loctight to these bolts to keep them in.
 
Scottydoggs said:
look up whats called a lower conversion kit. has all them gaskets plus the oil pan and a few others for about 30 bucks. ( no head gaskets or lim. just the bottom of the engine)

change the rear main seal, not the front crank seal. the odds of that one leaking are real. best to leave it alone.

the rear cover you want to rtv the bottom 2 inches of the gasket on both sides, the pan gasket do rtv on both sides of the gasket, i did a smear on the block and the pan.

that rear cover is a very low tq, the bolts maybe hand tight right now. add a dot of blue loctight to these bolts to keep them in.
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Sweet man, FelPro an okay brand to go with here? Would it be worth while to get TQ spec for the rear cover? I got an inch pound TQ wrench. What about the flywheel to TQ bolts, I assume I should TQ them to spec?
 
Fahrenheit said:
Sweet man, FelPro an okay brand to go with here? Would it be worth while to get TQ spec for the rear cover? I got an inch pound TQ wrench. What about the flywheel to TQ bolts, I assume I should TQ them to spec?
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ive only seen the felpro kit, its what im using now,,,,,so nice to not leak oil no more. the tq is like 6 in inches, its listed here somewhere.

i reused the flex plate bolts. i just made them tight. german spec, goodentight.
 
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