Coolant ooze

[MarkEagleUSA]

I have this ooze on the passenger side of the engine. Looks to be coolant coming from the plugs or around the bolt heads. It's like a gummy paste.

What is it exactly and is it a major concern? What's the fix?

#ad

 

[mwilson]

Assuming that there is nothing wet that I can't see in the picture I would attempt to first tighten the pipe plugs. I believe each one blocks the water passages in the cylinder head.

Someone may not have tightened them properly when the head was assembled.

If you find they are loose I would drain the cooling system down a bit, remove them, clean them up and re-assemble using some quality thread sealing tape or compound.

 

[MarkEagleUSA]

Assuming that there is nothing wet that I can't see in the picture I would attempt to first tighten the pipe plugs. I believe each one blocks the water passages in the cylinder head.

Someone may not have tightened them properly when the head was assembled.

If you find they are loose I would drain the cooling system down a bit, remove them, clean them up and re-assemble using some quality thread sealing tape or compound.

Nothing "wet" that I could tell either. That pic was taken in the morning before the truck was driven. I checked it later in the afternoon after a short ride and still had no wetness... just the gooey mess you see.

I'll try to tighten them tonight when I get home. Are those head bolts next to the plugs?

 

[mwilson]

Nothing "wet" that I could tell either. That pic was taken in the morning before the truck was driven. I checked it later in the afternoon after a short ride and still had no wetness... just the gooey mess you see.

I'll try to tighten them tonight when I get home. Are those head bolts next to the plugs?

Yes they are.

I'm really thinking the plugs were never tightened correctly.

 

[mwilson]

As far as the head bolts I don't THINK it would come up around them. Or if it did there would be coolant oozing elsewhere as well....

 

[MarkEagleUSA]

As I said I'll check those plugs when I get home. Forgot to mention earlier that the oil seems fine with no milky appearance at all and the coolant seems to be the right shade of green.

Leaking threads on those plugs makes the most sense but since I'm a CTD newbie I'm not always sure what to look for or where to look for it. Thank God for a great resource like TDR... I've learned a bunch in my short time here.

 

[MarkEagleUSA]

Cleaned up the mess when I got home. I was able to get a little over a full turn out of both plugs. Maybe that's all it needs? If it still shows signs of leaking in a couple of days I'll drain some coolant, remove the plugs, and re-seal them.

#ad

 

[mwilson]

At a full turn each I'd say you found the problem...

 

[mwilson]

They may be ok just like that, not really that much pressure behind them.

 

[Motorhead]

That happened to my '07, 5.9. What color coolant are you running? Since I had the factory red coolant in mine, I had reddish white staining.

 

[MarkEagleUSA]

That happened to my '07, 5.9. What color coolant are you running? Since I had the factory red coolant in mine, I had reddish white staining.

The coolant is green in the radiator. Makes me wonder if the right coolant is in there... oh well, another thing added to the list.

 

[LFalconer]

Had the same issue on my 06 as mwilson said, drained a bit of fluid, pulled plug, put fresh tape on and finished. That was 50K ago.



Luke