[streakolean]

recently replaced upper and lower hoses and now have a nagging drip from the lower hose that i just cant stop. only a few drops and seems to only happen after i shut down and the engine begins to cool, its coming from where the hose is connected to the water pump pipe. i want to replace the clamp that came with the hose with a more effective clamp type, the hose is from ford and has their unique clamp glued on. any suggestions?

thanks

 

[RT]

Are you sure its coming from the hose and not from the o-ring seal at that inlet housing/water pump junction? That is an extremely common place for these trucks to leak. I had the same leak, and when I pulled it to change my o-ring, I found an eroded surface on the water pump side. I had to build it up with JB weld to get it to seal. Of course, my pump went out a few months later so that was fixed with the swap.

 

[streakolean]

yep, sure its from the bottom hose, i had similar issues to what you describe both at the top of the water pump and the o ring at the bottom, resolved them. this weeps a few drops right above the hose clamp where the bottom hose slips over the transition pipe to the bottom of the water pump. i think its just a lousy clamp and would like to know if there are better alternatives to the ford style clamps.

thanks

 

[BTBBT]

I had the same issue, but didn't notice it as I was on a 1600 mile trip. I got half way through my trip and the hose came off the pump. You can, carefully, remove that clamp and replace it with the more commonly used worm drive clamps. If, there is enough of the barb left past the clamp you can put a worm clamp right up next to the existing clamp to seal it off.

 

[RT]

The standard band clamp is probably the best - you don't want to concentrate too much force on the hose as it will just crush it. I really don't think the issue is just a clamp not being tight enough - it doesn't take a lot of force to make the seal. I still think something else could be going on - maybe some crud built up on the neck allowing water to seep through. I think you need to take that hose off, sand down the neck, clean the inside of the hose and put it back together. You could even put a light coat of a non-hardening silicone on the inside of the hose, but you'd have to cut it off the next time you change hoses.

The spot I suggested it could be leaking from in my first post will look like what you described. When mine was leaking, the coolant dripped down to that interface and down the hose. The only way I knew it was that junction is that leaks where you are suspecting are extremely rare.