If you can see coolant leaking on the ground then you possibly will not have yo perform a compresson test. You said it is leaking from the front of the engine under the cover. It is possible the coolant nipple is cracked & causing the leak. I would be careful because it will break off in the manifold & it is a *beep* to remove.

Keep it family friendly please. Thanks, TBB.

 

where is the coolant nipple?

also is it possible that the fluid is coming from the water pump weep hole?

 

The coolant nipple is what your heater hose connects to. just follow your heater hoses from the heater core to the engine. Yes it is possible that it is leaking from the weep hole. You are going to have to do some checking to find out were it is leaking from.

 

I did not mean to be harsh in the least. But you didn't even entertain the possibility of checking compression. I simply stated that checking the compression is the only true way to check the integrity of the head gasket. You could have responded stating exactly what you did earlier and not gotten the response you did. But when suggestions get ignored, it really makes people want to jump right in and help further.

This post is all over the place. If you want to take the shotgun approach to fixiing your truck in the ice/snow/rain, be my guest. I hope you get it fixed and still have some coin in your wallet when you do. My steps are to eliminate possibilities so you do not waste money, but what do I know. I'll keep my mouth shut from now on. Cya.

 

I understand how uncomfortable it can be to work in the snow/rain. however you do what you have to do and then warm up. I once changed a 2wdr bearing that welded itself to the spindle in a blizzard 40 miles from home in a Mc Donalds parking lot. After I broke my 3 finger puller I had to cut the race off with a hacksaw blade, no handle, then take a file and file the spindle round and smooth so the new bearing woud slide on. took me 3 hours and I had over 4" of fresh new snow on the ground when I finished.

If you cannot check compression, say so.
Now that you had a chance to look under the hood, take off the plastic splash guard and look again. I throw down a hunk of carpet and lay on it to work on the ground. If you have a steady stream what ever it is cannot wait.

 

i looked today and it appeared to be coming from the top of the water pump so i bought a water pump and hoses and i will replace them tomorrow

it actually only took me and my dad like 20 minutes to pull the water pump so i will hope that is all it is and the check engine light is another issue

 

Low coolant can cause the check engine light to come on steady. It will not cause it to blink.

 

yeah I will try to pull the codes as soon as i get the water pump put on today, i do notice alot of rattling from the catalytic converter so maybe that is my issue but im not sure.

I pulled a couple of the plugs that i could actually get to yesterday while pulling the water pump and they were dry and paper bag brown colored so I dont think those particular plugs ever had antifreeze on them but i will have to pull the res soon

i have a friend with a compression tester and he is bringing it by later today so it am going to get that checked, what should my compression be ideally?

 

It really depends on the ovorall condition of the engine. What you are looking for is one cylinder that is way under the rest.

 

Ok guys I replaced the water pump and checked the compression and they are all around 160 with none of them being that far off, after i got it all put back together i took it for a drive and it still seems to have that miss to it and the check engine light will come on and stay on then it will flash

so i guess my question now is do you think it is safe to drive it 30+ miles to get the codes read or do you guys know what would cause a miss bad enough to make the check engine light flash