Ok guys I have a coolant issue in my Chevy ½ ton 5.3 4WD. It is losing coolant I can smell it and the oil doesn’t look like a milk shake. The problem is I cannot find where its leaking, now I was wondering if there might be some kind of dye I could put in and then when it leaks follow the dye back to the leak. Anybody have any ideas??
loss of collant in my chevy truck
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I had that problem before and it was the water pump, coolant would leak out weap hole and could not find it until I finally saw a drop on concrete and traced it back to weap hole. Good luck
2nd most popular Place to leak in a Chevy is heater core. Smell blows in cab and most but not all leave air box by drain for condensate. When it ruptures then it really leaks in can then.
Tim
Tim
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Well Dad always drove a Ford truck, he liked them so does lil bro and sis,,,But then I don't and none of them have Butoa either so we will leave it at that,,lol Anyway,, the smell is out side not inthe cab so I doubt its the heater core though I am leaning more toward the water pump, if I can get to it. Would take 3 hours just to get all the stuff pulled off to check it,,lol, thanks guys, even the ford guy 
Letting it sit idling in place for a half hour should be all it takes to see coolant from the weep hole. Probably less than that if it is the pump. At least it's easy after you get every thing pulled off around if.
Good luck,
Good luck,
Well Mr. K seems to be intelligent enough human you may just have to start writing mech assistant notes. Those are written in black permanent marker on the forearm or back of the hand of the asst. that way there are no notes to lose. Then there's evidence of the instructions if the action fails!!
Haha!
Haha!
The most common leak I've seen if the heater core or radiator and water pump aren't the culpret is the intake manifold. If it's not in the oil you're lucky and the sooner you replace it the better so that doesn't become an issue. As high of operating temperature newer vehicles run along with the catylitic converter makes the sweet "smell" not as noticable as it used to be.
Oh, someone mentioned that's why they drive Fords and I'd have to agree that most do and never experience this type of leak because the engines never hold up as many miles as it typically take to have this problem. LOL!!!
And being you typically get 5 to 7 more miles per gallon along with the driving comfort and less tire wear etc it's a good trade off that still makes it economical to own.
Tired
Oh, someone mentioned that's why they drive Fords and I'd have to agree that most do and never experience this type of leak because the engines never hold up as many miles as it typically take to have this problem. LOL!!!
And being you typically get 5 to 7 more miles per gallon along with the driving comfort and less tire wear etc it's a good trade off that still makes it economical to own.
Tired
Surprised no one's mentioned this. Since about '98 GM has had problems with their motors eating their head/intake gaskets about every 100,000 miles like clockwork. There are varying explanations, I personally think it's the combination of dexcool and crappy gaskets but I can tell you that I've replaced both gaskets on a '98 Silverado with the 5.7L and a Venture with the 3.4L at 98k and 120k respectively. I can also tell you that quite a few GMs I saw at the quick lube that was near 100k miles had oily sludge in their expansion tanks. The V6 motors are the worst affected but all of their engines seem to have the problem to varying degrees.
If you can smell but not see it that means it's a small leak into the engine bay. Our Silverado popped it's intake gasket such that the #5 and #8 cylinders were pulling coolant in through the intake runners. The exhaust smelled vaguely like coolant and when I pulled the head off those pistons were completely carbon free. They do make a UV dye designed to work with coolant you could use. Check around the heads and intake as best you can. If it's leaking into the V you'll smell it but not see it til you take the intake off. As already mentioned it could just be the water pump. Without clearer signs I'd use the UV dye before I go tearing things apart.
If you can smell but not see it that means it's a small leak into the engine bay. Our Silverado popped it's intake gasket such that the #5 and #8 cylinders were pulling coolant in through the intake runners. The exhaust smelled vaguely like coolant and when I pulled the head off those pistons were completely carbon free. They do make a UV dye designed to work with coolant you could use. Check around the heads and intake as best you can. If it's leaking into the V you'll smell it but not see it til you take the intake off. As already mentioned it could just be the water pump. Without clearer signs I'd use the UV dye before I go tearing things apart.