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Coolant leak above starter... below exhast manifold??

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badbowtie03

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hey yall, I am getting drips here and there of coolant coming from above the starter... but below the passenger manifold... is there a freeze plug up there that could be leaking or where in the heck do yall think it could be coming from? Thanks a lot!!
 
Stick your phone down there and take a picture

could be anything. May be a crack
 
Could be a freeze plug,or possibly a head gasket leaking..hopefully not a crack!...this is the time of year that blocks crack,when people had been filling the radiator during warm weather with plain water and diluted the anti-freeze,or just used water alone..

The cylinder heads have a 3/8" pipe threaded port in one end for the temperature sending unit,and that is usually put in the drivers side head,and it is located towards the front most part of the engine..--but both heads can be swapped side to side,and that port would end up in the rear on the passenger side,and might leak..

I have seen some exhaust manifold bolts leak coolant also,some may enter the water jackets in the heads..some Permatex #2 or gasket shellac on the bolt threads usually seals them up..
 
UV dye is another option if you're having trouble finding the source of the leak.
 
I'll bet it's a freeze plug. I had one corrode thru on my 64 C10 in high school. It would have been 28 years old at the time. An 87 motor is older than that now so it's not improbable.

There is a freeze plug right behind/above the starter.

350b.jpg

chevrolet-383-small-block-wire-from-powergen-battery-terminal-to-msd-dynaforce-starter1.jpg
 
Don’t forget the passenger side would have a knock sensor installed in the block as well on a factory TBI truck. Don’t be too quick to jump to the worst case scenario.
 
Scribbles said:
Don’t forget the passenger side would have a knock sensor installed in the block as well on a factory TBI truck. Don’t be too quick to jump to the worst case scenario.
Click to expand...

Out of curiosity... if a knock sensors job is to detect knock... and then usually retard timing... how does that work on a tbi 350 being that timing is adjusted by manually turning the distributor? Or am i missing something?
 
The "base timing" is set by moving the distributor--the ECM takes over after that,it can adjust the timing electronically according to the sensors info from the knock sensor..
 
badbowtie03 said:
Out of curiosity... if a knock sensors job is to detect knock... and then usually retard timing... how does that work on a tbi 350 being that timing is adjusted by manually turning the distributor? Or am i missing something?
Click to expand...
The timing is all comp controlled. There is a disconnect wire on the fire wall at which point you start it and set the timing at 0
Yes 0

shut it off before reconnecting the wire
 
Water cooled starters...you could make a fortune!
Hopefully its just the freeze plug, easiest fix.
 
I'm pretty sure the knock sensor is in a blind hole. As in not threaded into a coolant or oil passage.
 
The plug in you picture with the headers is where the knock sensor is threaded in and yes it is in the water jacket.
 
Another possibility is a head bolt. The ones that run along the bottom side of the block thread into coolant passages. Another one is the heater core hoses. The intake manifold heater hose, or heater hose port hose barb towards the back of the engine could be leaking. Another possibility is the thermostat housing. When those leak they run backwards towards the back of the engine and drip at the starter motor. When the thermostat housing leaks the coolant runs under the wire loom running along the top of the right side intake manifold, and cannot be seen easily.
 
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