Thread: Where's the Leak?

About 12 months ago I replaced the water pump (for no particular good reason) installing new 'o' rings and gaskets in both the pump and Oil Cooler. All looked to be in good order before putting it back together. Once the job was complete and after a few days, I noticed a 'pink' coolant leak that was dripping under the car and, although difficult to see, it appeared to be coming from the rear of the water pump ... and looked like it was from a small bleed hole. As it was not an excessive leak, I hoped that it would take up after a while ..but has not.

I bought another full set of seals/gaskets to do the water pump/oil cooler again and after having pulled the whole lot down again to see exactly where the leak is coming from, it does not appear to be from the water pump as expected, but seemed to be from the top right corner of the oil cooler.
Looking at it more closely, there are coolant stains around what appears to be a screw in 'plug' in the side of the block just above the oil cooler. So now I'm not sure if the plug is leaking or it's just stained by coolant spraying up or migrating from the oil cooler. It sort of looks like it's from the plug and leaked down onto the cooler, however, there was no sign of leakage at the plug when I pulled it down 12 months back when I replaced all seals/gaskets in the oil cooler ... so my thinking is that it's more likely to be from the oil cooler than the plug.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

What's the story with the plug? Does it unscrew and if so which direction? Should I remove it regardless, clean and seal it again ... or best to just leave alone.?

Leak.jpg

Originally Posted by rapserv

the black stain around the rear port is black grease that's somehow worked it way up to there.... maybe the rear bolts weren't torqued up properly. I de-webbed the exhaust manifold back in 2011.

Fair 'nuff.