I've been flushing the cooling system with distilled water for the past few weeks. A gallon at a time.

Today I noticed that when the coolant was draining from the rad, coolant was also leaking (a steady drip) from the oil pan area.

When I refilled the radiator the leak stopped. It has not leaked since, and I've looked for the leak with motor having run a long time and on, and in the morning when it had been off. No coolant puddle or anything.

It was definitely a leak though. I am just wondering why it only leaks when I drain the coolant. Pressure release?

The area near the oil pan is way too far for it to have been runoff from my spilling anything. And I didn't spill anything.

I am baffled by the fact that it's not a constant leak or drip.

 

Flushing for a few weeks? Why?
Have you been driving it as you were flushing it?
Water has no lubrication for the water pump seals.

 

I did drive it, there have been no sub zero temps out here and I didn't think running distilled water is a problem in a cooling system as long as temps aren't freezing. I flushed that way, because I didn't want to spend a whole day flushing and driving and flushing again.

I wouldn't have done that had I thought the seals would go. They are original seals on a 97. Perhaps I helped but at this point I need to deal with the problem. There's no steam coming out of the exhaust.

What's the call on this? Replace the seals given the encounter with a leak? Or wait to see if it reappears, hopefully going away with fresh green coolant..

 

There's a weep hole on the engine block near where the alternator mounts on that coolant can come out of. I'm not sure why it decided to come out of there but if you cleaned it all up, there's no more coming out and the temp is holding steady, then I say keep an eye on the coolant level and keep on truckin'.

 

Hope you put some pump lube your cooling system!

 

Be carefull what green coolant you use. You want extended life silicate free phosfate free.

 

So if it came out of the weep hole, does that necessarily mean it's in the engine oil? Or did it just go through the first seal, and into the drain channel and through the weep hole?

If engine oil has antifreeze, the leak would be visible through steam coming out of the exhaust right? I've never had this happen, can anyone confirm?

Would appreciate clarification.

 

I just replaced the distilled water with coolant, and so far there is no leak from the weep hole. It didn't leak from the weep hole when I was draining the radiator this time. I'll just keep an eye on it as suggested.

It it's going to fail, I am sure it will do so when there's two feet of snow on the ground .