Bay area. I need help with S50 leak!

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I have checked everywhere and cant source the leak. Hoping to have another set of eyes help me out. All I know is that the coolant is settling on the driver side of the oil pan where it connects to the block. There is a part of the oil pan's shape which is parallel to the ground, and thats where the water is settling then dripping to the floor. Can anyone help me out?

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Ill buy you some tacos and beer.

[Fast Frankie]

wish I could help bro but I know diddly about the s50.

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Awww. Thanks tho. I'm just gonna have to try.

[Van Westervelt]

The front port of your spider hose is right above that part of your pan. As are both of the coolant temp sensors, and the front throttle body cooling loop port thingy.

Any of those are likely culprits. See a picture from one of my s50's below.

See the wire sleeve with the blue tag? Thats one sensor. You can see the other next to it, and the cooling port outlet behind them. Also, you can see the spider hose flange bare, directly behind the oil filter housing. Any one of these would explain your 'pooling.'

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Van, you are one expert for sure! Those locations are also what I'm leaning towards after all the reaserch I've done. Question is, how do iget to those places with the manifold in the way? I can figure the hose out next to the filter housing, but what if it's the sensors? Thanks for the help man, I appreciate it like crazy.

[Van Westervelt]

It is likely that it is the small hose then. Sensors rarely leak, unless they arent screwed in tight with good crush washers. You can spend lot of time bent over cursing and cutting up your knuckles, or you can unhook the throttle body, slide the fuel rail off, and pull the intake manifold out. Its a lot of work to get to one little hose, but its much easier that way.

Takes me about 20 minutes to remove all the items listed. Good luck, get to work, and report back on your findings!

Browse my photobucket folder. There are a lot of random odd pics of the s50 head etc you might find useful.

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The only thing that perplexes me is that I somehow got my fingers to touch the lip of the hose where it meets that flange behind the filter housing and it was dry! It'll be nice if that's wehere the leak is coming from because at least I will be figuring it out. Would it leak from there if the car us not running?

[Van Westervelt]

Easy way to find it, use some duct tape and a little bit of paper towel. Tape a wad under each of the 4 connections/ports. After running, you will find one is wet so long as the leak is coming from there.

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Ok, I am going to put a vid of the leak shortly.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3crvimc8mc8 I cant believe someone from Oregon is on the Califonia section helping me out.

[Van Westervelt]

That bolt cant be 'the leak' unless your oil pan is full of water/coolant. It has to be coming from above by the sensors/hoses. The only other possibility, is that there is some random crack in the block.

No oil in water? Time to pull that intake manifold off. May take you 30-45 minutes.

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No oil in water? Time to pull that intake manifold off. May take you 30-45 minutes.

Ya, I know. It makes no sense for that bolt to be the leak. Theres nothing but oil in that location of course. I took the radiator and alternator out and it cleared up enough space to get to the coolant sensors on the head you told me about and that hose behind the oil filter reservoir. All dry. Funny thing is coolant keeps on leaking and leaking which makes me think it is on a low point of where the coolant flows.

[Bryson]

The port for the throttle body heater is plugged with the correct sized bolt and aluminum crush washer, the opposing side connected to the spider hose is plugged with a non-threaded steel bolt shank and hose clamp.

Neither have been touched in 10k miles since the engine was built, nor either of the temp senders (also have alu crush washers). Spider hose has 10k on it as well. New with the engine build, along with temp gauge sender.

I'm leaning in the same direction though; one of those three ports in the head (most likely the plug), or the junction in the spider hose toward the front of the engine.

edit: you might want to try stuffing a paper towel underneath the front of the spider hose to see if it gets wet

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edit: you might want to try stuffing a paper towel underneath the front of the spider hose to see if it gets wet

Sadly enough, I did that and it was dry. I will keep checking but I am stumped. I put my hand at every possible place and no coolant. Even my cousin couldnt figure it out and hes quite mechanically knowledgable.