At least it's not something that merits immediate action........I hope. I've been mysteriously losing coolant for about a year now, but it was very slow and I only needed to top off the recovery tank every couple months. I've looked for the leak several times, but could never make it leak while I was looking. I have a radiator pump and I've pressurized the system several times while looking for the leak, but the conditions were never right.

Well, about 2 weeks ago the radiator stopped sucking coolant from my recovery tank . I thoroughly checked the radiator cap, recovery tank, and the associated hoses but couldn't find anything wrong. This morning I noticed a spot of antifreeze on my garage floor when I left for work so tonight I checked it out again. Here's what I found:


Looks like it's leaking coolant out between the head & the block on the manifold side near the back of the engine. So far there isn't any coolant in my oil, oil in my coolant, no combustion gasses in my coolant, and no coolant entering my cylinders, but I do have a confirmed external leak. The van is an 89 Automatic Cargo 2wd with 162k miles on it. I carry a 3,000 lb fixed load and basically beat the crap out of it. I do maintain it pretty good though, so that helps equal things out. I'm not sure exactly when I'll do the job, I guess that will depend on the coolant consumption and how fast it gets worse. I'll post pics here and give details when I do. Tim