Hi guys, monte overheated on me on the way to work yesterday. Lost a TON of fluid in a short amount of time. When I went to add coolant, I had it pouring out the back onto the ground. 3/4 of a gallon just immediately went on the ground when filling from the radiator. Got it to my buddies shop and threw it on the lift, he doesn't think it's a head gasket or anything normal like that. Said he thinks it needs a new rear main seal kit. Apparently there are two large coolant channels that end up back there? Is that right? Sounds like the tranny needs to be taken out to get to it, just a huge job. I have a buddy who will fix it, but he's busy with his own stuff right now and it would be 2 months before he could touch it. I guess i'm just trying to figure out if that's what the problem is for sure, anyone ever seen this problem before??

 

The rear main seal is against the flex plate which the trans bolts too, that will not leak coolant unless your block is flooded with coolant and mixed with the oil and even at that it would be a mixture of coolant and oil.

On the side of the engine that faces toward the firewall there is freeze plugs that if they go bad can leak coolant.

Most common coolant leak with these are the coolant elbows, they are plastic from the factory and get brittle and break. There is 2 of them both under the alternator. They are fairly easy to replace and I would really look at them before thinking it's anything else.

 

Thanks for the reply. Coolant elbows are good to go, they were replaced with aluminum at some point. When I added coolant to the radiator it was coming out the bottom about as fast as I could put it in, somewhere behind the motor. We had flash lights and mirrors and couldn't see where it was coming from at all. Am I assuming it's a freeze plug then?

 

I would check them first then, yes

 

Alright. Thanks again for the reply. Can you sort of break down exactly how you go about doing that? Motor needs pulled out? I'm going to have my buddies shop do it, just curious on the whole process.

 

Here is a link to a video of a 4.3 litre engine but it will give you a good idea of what all is involved