Coolant leak

Tiny
RANDY INGLE
  • MEMBER
  • 2002 CHEVROLET 2500
  • 6.6L
  • V8
  • 4WD
  • AUTOMATIC
  • 341,000 MILES
I drove on a highway for about 2 miles in second gear not realizing it. Truck would not go above 55 MPH before I realized I was not in drive. The low coolant light came on and when I got off the highway and about 1 mile to home there was no coolant in the reservoir. I poured a gallon in but it all leaked out under the drivers side. I noticed a bolt was leaking but it was streaming above that bolt. Could I have blown a head gasket? My son thinks if the transmission overheated I could have blown a seal.
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2021 AT 11:36 AM

13 Replies

Tiny
STEVE W.
  • MECHANIC
  • 13,134 POSTS
Welcome back. Transmission may have gotten hot but that wouldn't cause a coolant leak unless there was already a weak spot in the cooling system.
That side of the engine has freeze plugs, the turbocharger coolant lines, the water pump outlet from the engine oil cooler and the cooler itself. Because it is leaking out rapidly I would think it was a hose or o-ring that failed. If it's leaking toward the rear of the engine I would look at the oil cooler and the water pump outlet pipe first. It has a gasket at one end and an o-ring at the other and the o-rings can fail easily. The coolers have also been known to fail if they are running at higher pressure, like high RPMs and coolants getting hot but that is usually the oil seal side, but the coolant side rings are the same stuff. Use the camera you got to snake around under that side looking for the leak. The pic is the cooler tube, it's in front of the oil filter and cooler assembly. If it is leaking higher up on the engine then I would look at the turbocharger cooler lines. They are just below the turbo and run toward the front of the engine. Last I hope are the freeze plugs, those are pressed into the core plug holes in the side of the block, they have been known to rust out and leak. There is also the engine block heater if it has one, those were factory installed on the other side but if it had one installed elsewhere it might be on the drivers side. Those go into the same hole that a freeze plug uses. That would look like the last picture but on the other side. The three freeze plugs though are the same on both sides. The middle ones are not that bad to change but the end ones can be a real bear. I would start though with the visual inspection as it should let you find the leak faster without removing half the engine parts first.
While it could be a head gasket they normally don't fail to the outside of the engine like that especially on a diesel.
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Tuesday, February 23rd, 2021 AT 12:33 PM
Tiny
RANDY INGLE
  • MEMBER
  • 63 POSTS
Thank you so much Steve. I pray blessing upon you and your family. That is nothing I can do so I had the 2500 towed over to a diesel shop and hope whatever it is will not force me to rob a bank!
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Tuesday, February 23rd, 2021 AT 2:40 PM
Tiny
STEVE W.
  • MECHANIC
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Hopefully it's a minor thing. Personally I'm not real keen on changing freeze plugs on many engines, some of them make me learn new words that I can't use in public. Let us know what they find, but if the price is that high, don't tell us about the payment method. Don't want to become accessories after the fact.
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Tuesday, February 23rd, 2021 AT 2:50 PM
Tiny
RANDY INGLE
  • MEMBER
  • 63 POSTS
LOL. I sure hope it won't cost me an arm and a leg. I am a semi-retired Nam Vet who hopes the truck will last me another 3-4 years as it is my only work truck and I still do small jobs.
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Wednesday, February 24th, 2021 AT 6:45 AM
Tiny
STEVE W.
  • MECHANIC
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First off Thank You for Your Service.
I know what you mean by semi-retired, I sold off my shop after deciding I wanted to avoid more damage to myself, since then I seem to have less time than I did before! Still do training and try to limit my repairs to friends and family, but for some reason I now have more "friends" and family than I ever knew about.
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Wednesday, February 24th, 2021 AT 2:11 PM
Tiny
RANDY INGLE
  • MEMBER
  • 63 POSTS
Now Steve we all know it is because you are a wonderful man! :)
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Wednesday, February 24th, 2021 AT 3:52 PM
Tiny
STEVE W.
  • MECHANIC
  • 13,134 POSTS
I think it's more that I now have time and the tools and for them labor is at a very low rate.
LOL.
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Wednesday, February 24th, 2021 AT 4:16 PM
Tiny
RANDY INGLE
  • MEMBER
  • 63 POSTS
Just to let you know I had the truck towed from one place to a place called Diesel Injector Service and the quoted me $1,200.00 to fix the problem. They said they would replace the oil cooler where the majority of leak was coming from. I gave them the go ahead since that is much better that $3,500.00 the other place quoted me. Hope to get truck back tomorrow! Praise The Lord!
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Thursday, March 4th, 2021 AT 6:44 AM
Tiny
STEVE W.
  • MECHANIC
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Those things leak quite a bit. Thanks for the update.
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Thursday, March 4th, 2021 AT 8:15 AM
Tiny
RANDY INGLE
  • MEMBER
  • 63 POSTS
I am just excited about getting my work truck back. Having 342,000 miles on it I just hope it lasts me another 3-4 years as by then I should be fully retired. Just curious do you know much about a 1992 Dodge Stealth RT/TT that has 550 Injectors and 500 Turbos?
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Thursday, March 4th, 2021 AT 12:54 PM
Tiny
STEVE W.
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The Stealth was a Mitsubishi 3000GT in a different set of body panels. The upper models were expensive back then. The twin Turbo cars were beasts though. Only worked on a couple over the years because they were not real popular around my area. But if you have questions toss them up on the main board, we have a few folks who were with Chrysler back then who may know a lot more than I do.
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Thursday, March 4th, 2021 AT 1:20 PM
Tiny
RANDY INGLE
  • MEMBER
  • 63 POSTS
Hey Steve, got another problem with my 2002 Silverado 2500 HD 6.6 Turbo. My ABS and Brake light kept coming on. I could turn the engine off and back on and it would disappear for several hours or even a few days but always came back on. I had both sensors replaced but now the ABS light by itself appears (no brake light comes on). Could this be the computer is not recognizing the new sensors?
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Friday, May 14th, 2021 AT 7:31 AM
Tiny
STEVE W.
  • MECHANIC
  • 13,134 POSTS
Sounds like a sensor signal issue that you would need to run a scan on the ABS to see what error code it has stored. It could be a bad connection as they are known for the front cross harness going bad, but the company wants to keep the questions about different issues as different questions so the search function works properly so could you ask this as a new question please?
https://www.2carpros.com/questions/new
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Friday, May 14th, 2021 AT 2:53 PM

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