Another Coolant Leak Thread (3VZE).... behind driver valve cover

[KHoffRunner]

'92 3VZE 5 speed its actually a SR5 pickup:

Nearly one year to the date I replaced I replaced the timing belt and now its leaking coolant up high and puddling behind the driver side valve cover.

Any ideas of parts to round up on my way home? Never had HG problems and its still not overheating now. My dad had a '95 with terrible HG problems and this was never one of the issues.

My '00 4runner is sitting waiting on its alignment appointment too right now.

 

[HanginInUtah]

HG problems usually don't leak coolant out.
Probably one of the many hoses or clamps for the heater circuits. Kinda hard to just guess which one, and you've got the coolant manifold that bolts up top at the rear of the intake... although i'd think that would be the lowest chance of a leak just starting now. Best thing you could do is see if you have someone to borrow a pressure tester from, pump it up, and see where it's spraying.

 

[KHoffRunner]

Good to hear, our '95 only leaked internally when the HG were going. I'll pull some pieces off and see if I can find a faulty hose or seal. Thanks for the peace at mind!

 

[kc15842]

Check the heater hoses.

 

[KHoffRunner]

This is quickly becoming a mystery leak. Last night I ripped into the TB because I thought it was coming from somewhere behind the cams and once I got where I could see something everything looked clean and dry as a whistle.

I got everything back together last night and started it up this evening to see if I could pinpoint it while it was running and NOTHING. Not even a drip, I put a piece of white cardboard under the truck and its clean. I even revved it up to driving RPMs to mimicked my highway driving I was doing when this leak originally occured. I had the truck the same way I was driving: AC off and about 2k-2.5k RPMs. So strange.


EDIT: I was able to get a little bit of torque on the coolant manifold behind the top TB pulley, maybe that was it.

 

[HanginInUtah]

It would really help if you could pressurize the system. Unfortunately, I work in a shop, and I have friends with shops, so getting one for me is easy. It may not be for you. But that would allow you to get 15-20 lbs in the system and it would show easily where a weak spot is.

 

[RonJR]

It would really help if you could pressurize the system. Unfortunately, I work in a shop, and I have friends with shops, so getting one for me is easy. It may not be for you. But that would allow you to get 15-20 lbs in the system and it would show easily where a weak spot is.

Autozone, etc., will rent you a pressure tester for "free" as long as you bring it back in a couple days. I second that as a way to find the leak. Pump it up to 20 psi and look all you want without worrying about hot exhaust manifolds, spinning fan blades, and moving belts, all ready to injure you.

Plus, often the leak is easier to find when things are cold, and the mating parts haven't expanded and sealed up tighter.

 

[KHoffRunner]

Finally got around to pressurizing the system and found one spot on a hose towards the firewall that had a lose clamp and was leaking. I was on the hoses on the heater switch regulator. I put 20ish psi and it likes to drop back down to about 18 psi where it then holds steady.

I drove it and thought I could still smell a leak, but no more visible puddles and the smell may just be residual evaporating. Hopefully I got it solved and can move on to the leaky oil cooler.