Coolant leak...L head...rear frost plug

[Bruceinhealy]

Hi all,
Great forum. A lot of knowledge floating around here. The buyers guide was invaluable when I was looking at 4 Runners. Great to know the known issues going into the process. Bought a 98 4x4, 3.4 L, AT, SR5. Has 243k, had the timing belt, water pump, and radiator replaced recently so felt good about that. No pink milkshake issues that I could detect or get out of the previous owner by careful questioning. Pulled all the plugs in the running gear to check for metal and to see the condition of the oils. All good.

Have had it a few weeks now and a coolant leak showed up. When I bought it I saw the coolant was a hair low, but the radiator hoses were a bit loose and leaking a bit. Tightened those up and it quit. I didn't see any coolant underneath when I bought it and I looked this thing over with a fine tooth comb.
Today I get underneath to replace the fuel filter and there's coolant on the steering rack. I investigate and am bummed to find coolant leaking out of a frost style plug on the back of the left head. I cleaned the area up good. Got a mirror and could see it was dry above the plug but was slowly dripping off the bottom of it. I can't see where a guy could do anything with it in place as the exhaust crossover is right in the way. My question: is the head gonna have to come off? Anybody deal with this before? Any tricks for doing this in place?

It has clean coolant (green) in it and not just water. Hoping I don't have a corrosion problem.

Thanks for any input or advice.

 

[alumarine]

A picture might help.

 

[Supersonic]

Drain the coolant below that level, let it dry, then try an epoxy glue? Don't know if it'll withstand engine temps so you might want to look into that. Did use it on lawn mower motor once and it held up.

First thought was put a smaller frost plug into the bigger one, but that was just a thought not knowing if they even make a smaller size that would fit.

 

[octanejunkie]

If it's a small leak you can try a product like Bar's Leaks (or one of the variations of it) that you add to the coolant, but to fix a freeze plug in a head correctly you have to take the head off to drive it in and stake it, usually

 

[Bruceinhealy]

Here's a photo from the bottom looking up. Can't see it from the top...maybe with the hood off. I might try some JB Weld to buy me some time, that's a good idea that I hadn't thought of. Although it might be a bugger to get that stuff off when it comes time to fix it correctly. Agreed, to fix it correctly the head will have to come off. I don't like using the stop leak additives.

It's going in this week for all the ball joints, all the control control arm bushings, the steering rack bushings, possibly outer tie rod ends and an alignment. Need it for moving or I would just let them keep it and do the plug as well.

Thank for the suggestions