jbb1366

First time poster, just wanted to throw this on here in case it helps anyone else out. I had a coolant leak that manifested at first by just hearing the fan working overtime under the hood. checked coolant level, was low, added some and just figured over the years I lost some via evaporation. Couple days later, temp gauge was jumpy and would get up close to H, go back down to middle, repeat. Popped the hood again and noticed coolant leak and steam coming from driver's side top of engine. I thought it was coming from between engine block and exhaust manifold and panicked, thinking cracked block or something major. Mechanic buddy came over and quickly pointed out the much less serious problem. The Water Outlet Housing was spraying coolant. I took the old one off, via the following steps: disconnect large radiator hose from front, smaller one from rear of part, remove 4 bolts holding housing next to engine block. One elec connector to temp sensor. One more smaller hose on bottom to remove, and part comes out pretty easily. I took my battery out to get it out of my way but otherwise just moved elec. harnesses out of the way as needed. After getting the old part off I quickly spotted the problem - the gasket sealing the housing to the block was shot. The gap that the housing has to allow the small tab on the gasket to show you how to line it up was allowing the pressure of the cooling system to push the gasket outward into the notch. Over time the gasket finally cracked and was allowing coolant to spray out onto the exhaust manifold. $8 for a new gasket. I put the old antifreeze back in (I know, should buy new, but I'm a cheap SOB) and added a little, opened the bleed air port on top of the part I had just worked on to let some air out a couple times. Seems to be good to go now.