3.0 coolant leak under intake, not the pipe [Archive] - Dodge Talk Community Forum


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Jay727
07-03-2007, 04:16 PM
My sister has a '97 caravan with a 3.0.
It was leaking coolant as fast as you could put it in, coming from under the intake mostly the drivers side, but a lot on the pass side too.
I removed the intake and metal pipe, wire wheeled it real good and found no holes replaced the two orings, intake gaskets, thermostat and gasket. Just put the bottom intake on and all the hoses and filled it up and it still leaks out of the drivers side. Not as bad but bad enough to not even think of driving it, or continuing to put it together.
Pulled the intake again and filled it up to the bottom of the coolant holes in the heads and I can see water coming from the passenger side.
I looked under by the head gasket area and it's dry.
Could the water pump be causing this?
I changed the water pump a few years ago but I don't see how that would cause it to leak accross the top of the engine.

Where else could it be leaking from?

XDGT03
07-03-2007, 05:27 PM
check the throttle body coolant hoses and heater core hoses.

Jay727
07-03-2007, 06:05 PM
check the throttle body coolant hoses and heater core hoses.

It doesn't have throttle body coolant hoses and the heater hoses are well out from under the intake.
I can take the intake off and fill it to the bottom of the coolant holes in the heads and see water flowing from the water pump area, accross the valley between the cylinders, and down the transmission. This is after I wire wheeled the metal tube ends and installed new o-rings. It seems like a bad water pump would leak out from under the passenger side, it all seems below the valley unless I'm wrong. I'd rather not take the passenger side apart but it looks like thats the only thing left.

Jay727
07-04-2007, 11:49 AM
Well it's the water pump.
Theres a round weep hole in the pulley side of it that wasn't leaking.
Theres a square weep hole on the engine side, it has a channel that should direct any leakage to the pulley side of the engine but that channel was blocked with sealant causing the leakage to build up behind the pump and spill over into the valley.