I just noticed a coolant leak on my 05' 6.0 a few days ago....about a 5" round spot in the driveway. I got up on top of the motor....and everything up in the valley is dry, no coolant, no oil, nothing...all nice and clean. No coolant on the EGR delete tube, or short blue connector hose...nothing. Even after searching around everything on the top with my bore scope...nothing...everything is nice and dry.
So I got underneath the truck.....coolant drips all around the starter area on the passenger side. So I spend about 30min with degreaser and a rag and got everything nice and try, and clean.
I fired up the truck, and got under there and just watched.....after a few minutes of running, Noticed a drip of coolant forming on the bottom of the lower started bolt....like it's coming right out of the hole where the bole goes through. Nothing coming from on top of the starter, just that lower bolt, and at the bottom of the joint where the starter meets the engine.
Where could that be coming from? I can't see anywhere on the outside of the motor where it's coming from...even after looking around with my borescope under the truck in the tight areas that are hard to see. Should I pull the starter off and see what I can find? At this point I'm at a loss.
Ordinal I wouldn't really care all that much....but I'm heading off on a 3000mile road trip with the camper and the family here in two weeks....so this leak has got me pretty nervous.
Yep,that was one of the first things I checked. Everything up top is dry.....
Nothing on top of the starter is wet........the only spot where I can find that is wet, is right there it's leaking.....the spot where the starter bolts to the block.
Well, at this point I'm kind of at a loss. I went home today and got up under the truck...yep, it's got that same drip under the starter...and a small spot on the floor. I dry everything up under the truck......and I checked the top of the valley where the EGR delete hose is...perfectly dry. I got back under the truck with my borescope and spent some time looking at everything up around the starter. The freeze plugs were all dry, the block plug was dry, the block heater was dry, even up under the intake where the EGR delete hooks up....dry. .......everything was dry.
I hooked my compressor up to the coolant system......hit it with 14psi. I went though everything.....nothing is wet, nothing is leaking, everything looks fine. The one thing I DID find, was that if I worked that little arm on the valve on the coolant line going to the heater core back and forth, I could get some coolant to cove out where where the arm pivots around. Other than that....nothing. Even after having 14psi pressure in the coolant system for 30min....nothing.
So at that point, I disconnected the compressor, and fired up the truck. I let it idle for about 45min....got the coolant temp up to around 194deg. Nothing.....no drips anywhere, nothing under the truck, nothing anywhere. I even turned the A/C on for a while, and the heater on for a while to cycle that valve in the cooling hose open and closed........nothing. I even put a paper towel under the EGR tube, one under the heater core valve, and stuffed one down into the valve long the joint there the head meets the block. After idling 45min.....NOTHING. No signs of coolant anywhere.
I'm letting it cool down now....maybe as it cools down something starts to leak? At this point...I'm stumped.......maybe that little valve had leaked a little bit at one time, and it just took a while for all of the coolant to drain down the side of the block and on the the ground? Very strange......I hate issues like this that are hard to fine, and don't follow any logic!
Well......even after taking the truck for a hard drive, and letting it cool for an hours...nothing. The bottom of the starter is bone dry, along with the top of the motor, the EGR delete tube, and all of the heater core hoses, and even the bottom of that valve......I left all of the paper towels under everything, maybe it will show something in the morning. Very strange...how do I go from a few drips a minute, to nothing over a period of a few hours. This kind of stuff drives me nuts!!
Maybe it dries when you drive? I have pressed toilet paper into the valley under the EGR cooler. it was only leaking of engine was off. In the toilet paper you can also see dried coolant. In my case, it was the hose between oil cooler and EGR cooler.
Right now I'm leaning towards this........and intermittent leak from that little heater valve.
I got up this morning....everything was dry under the truck, and on top of the engine valley. My paper towels that I had stuffed in the valley, under the EGR delete tube, and under the heater core valve were all clean...not a spot of red coolant on anything.
I drove the try to work this morning.....I'll have to check it out again once I get home tonight. The ONLY spot I ever saw any coolant as was that little arm on that heater core valve when I worked it back and forth. Maybe there was some junk in the seal around the shaft for that little arm?
Well......even after driving it around all day yesterday.....after I got home and let everything cool down, nothing...not a single drop of coolant. I guess I should be happy.
The only thing I can think of is an intermittent coolant leak from that heater control valve......it's right above where the valve cover meets the head on the top side of the motor. If it dripped at all, it would run right down along that joint to the back of the block, and then down onto the starter. When everything is cold, I can get a little bit of coolant to come out of it by wiggling the little arm on top of the valve just right.
I've picking up a new valve from Ford today........then I should be good to go.
Thanks again for all the help on figuring this issue out!
Well, the leak from the heater valve has been fixed.....but it looks like I'm still getting a little coolant out of that blue silicone hose that connects the EGR delete pipe to the coolant fitting on the oil cooler. Is there a way for me to replace that blue silicone tube without pulling the turbo and intake? Can I just take the two bolts out that go through the intake and into that EGR delete tube plate? Then I can just pull the whole hose/j-tube/plate assembly out, replace the tube, and then put it back in. Will that work? It's pretty tight down in there......
Also, is there something better to replace that cheap silicone tube with? What about a high quality heater hose that I can get from an autoparts store? I've never had much luck with those silicone rubber hoses.
I see your issue is a few months old and you've probably fixed it by now, but as for an answer to your question:
Can this be fixed without removing the turbocharger? - Yes, it's a major pain trying to get your delete pipe, both hoses and egr block plate all back in and tightened up. I know because I thought "I can do that without taking off the turbo." WELL I DID!! but in retrospect I'd remove it. It's a very tight spot to work in. You have very, very limited room to do anything including tightening the hose clamps down good. Hope it went well for you and I also used a piece of regular coolant line to replace both short hoses instead of the Blue hose as is shown in the pictures in the post above by someone else.
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