I think this may be along the lines of the water pump going bad, but I thought I'd ask.

My temp gauge is showing fine....and this doesn't happen as long as the truck is idling, but when I shut it off this evening, coolant was running decently steady out of somewhere behind the fan, in between the fan and the radiator, but I cannot spot where just yet. I am going to take the fan shroud off tomorrow and see if i can duplicate it.

It seriously looks like it is coming out of the center of the clutch on the fan......
Any ideas?? it just leaks when I turn it off for about 3 mins...but no leaks when it runs.....odd.

 

huh. crazy. no clue. What year? What engine? etc?

 

Hey man, I thought i put all that in, I guess it's just on my profile...... its a 1995 4x4 with a 4.0 5spd...manual hubs etc...its been running beautiful, its got about 100k miles on it.....

I need to fix it tho, i have no problem taking it apart, I just wonder what needs to be replaced, hate for this thing to give me problems down the road....

 

Hello,

(I was a OEM water pump engineer for 6 years)

It's your water pumps seal. Only way to fix it is to replace the water pump.


What you describe is not uncommon. The waterpumps bearing rides in a different location than when it's stationary **if the bearing has excess play**.
Since the seal is made of two rings that touch each other.. one attached to the shaft.. and the other to the housing.. as the bearing rotates the faces align with each other and seal the presurized coolant. When it stops rotating they become mis-aligned because of a worn bearing and develops a leak. A new waterpump doesn't leak because the bearing has next to no axial movement. (short explaination.. it gets deeper if you really want to know)


Rich

 

Sounds like you need a water pump.

 

Hope I am not hijacking. My '04 4.0 loses a very small amount of coolant. By small I mean like 6 oz per 5k miles. I can smell it burning off in the engine bay, but can't spot the leak. There is also a slight ticking comming from the fan area. I do not think it is an internal tick. I have 55k miles now. Could both of these problems combined indicate the WP and should I just replace it and see if it fixes both?

 

On the bottom side of the waterpumps snout there is a hole. (top and bottom) The top hole lets steam out and the bottom hole lets liquid drain out. 5 minutes after you shut it off look up in there with a mirror and see if you can see steam. If you do the water pumps seal is going bad.

Otherwise.. I donno. Look the radiator over very carefully.

Rich

 

sounds like a weep hole leak... if that pump has one...

 

Im going to hijack the thread for a moment...

I am having that same ticking issue as well. Have about the same amount of miles as you do (49,500).

I cant really pinpoint where this ticking noise is coming from, although i do know it speeds up as you step on the gas. Its not noticable inside the cab, only out.

Any ideas?

 

timing chain rattle?
theres a TSB for your year about it.

 

my jeep was doing the same thing with leaking after i shut it off, it was like a water fall, sure enough i changed my water pump.. yay... no more leaky lol

 

I doubt this has anything to do with the timing chains.

More like an exhaust leak, bad pulley, etc.

 

Thanks guys. I will give the WP a look in the manner suggested. I do think the tensioner is known for the ticking. I may replace that as well.

 

Well,

I figured out what was wrong with my truck.... and this is odd.
It was not the water pump, but RIGHT IN FRONT of the clutch part of the fan, one of the horizontal water passages in the radiator had a pinhole in it.....about 8 lines down from the top. I soldered it up, and it worked until my new radiator came in at Advance. FYI , it was 167.00 and a lot thinner than the factory one.. and it has two passages on the left side, like two 1/2" in/outlets...Im guessing it is aftermarket for an explorer also that hooks up to some sort of external cooler, but at least i can add one easily later.
A 45 min job to replace....

But I thought it was the water pump at first also, it was so wierd. I dunno how that hole could have got there?

 

Mark i checked all your pulleys there fine.. exhaust leak sounds like a puffing noise, i would bet its the timing chains the 2001 had the most problems with this then any year. was the fix ever done on your truck it should have been

 

rock usually