Where's my leak ? .....

Hello
just bought this truck for real cheap
can't wait to get it out in the bush
i seem to be loosing coolant like mad
get it warmed up, let it run, you can see the fluid dripping onto the ground, and smoking from under the hood
but when i get in there or under there to find it
i can't figure out where it's comming from
somewhere on intake side, near the firewall

i am going to pull the intake to see if it's the gasket or some hose under there.
is there any special spot i should watch for ?

it got a new head before i got it
and valve stem seals as well (or so i'm told)
so i have a feeling he forgot to do something up correctly, or used an old gasket

also, and i wonder if it is related
when you first start it up, i get a HUGE cloud, let it run for a minute it seems to go away for the most part, still smokes a bit though

any ideas of what to look for with that ?

I'll fight my lifter clack after i fix the coolant leak

thanks in advance !!

There is alittle coolant bypass hose on the bottom of the intake almost directly under the carb.. check that hose first .. they have a tendency to go bad..and the smoke.. well..first its a Mazda..lol.. second, the valve seals like to leak, rings get tired, and if it does have a bad head gasket it'll smoke too.. just pressure test the cooling system to weed out a headgasket then check and repair the other causes .. hope this helps a bit

is there any way to do a "home style" pressure test ?
I don't have a lot of money, and am trying to do this on the cheap

The oil level doesn't seem to go that low for how much it smokes
the rad on the other hand........

I will be spending the day tomorrow doing tests and tearing it apart
so any info i can get before that will be great !

I have a feeling i'll be tearing out the intake and replacing all those hoses anyway, just to be sure.....

Ugh.. my bad.. didn't notice your ride! The 2.6 you have is injected! .. the little hose I told you doesn't exist on the 2.6..it could be one of the hoses going to the oil cooler where the oil filter is and if its smoking like that with a 2.6 than it probably does have a bad head gasket. They are known for it..not too bad to do though.. home pressure test.. hmm. Idk really. I have a pressure tester and its a easy tool to get..but I think you can usually rent/use specialty tools from your local parts place.. best bet is to call and ask

Thanks for the update
I would like to think that the head gasket should be good
the Other guy just put on a new head
but hey, you never know !
I can do that in truck right ?

good call on the parts stores, i know Canadian tire does tool rental
i'll give them a call

Thanks !

Ahh. I see.. you can do a headgasket in truck. It's not too bad.. if the guy put a new head than hopefully you're ok... but.. you're gonna have to test it to be sure.. my 4x smokes a fair amount on start-up and its from the valve seals... idk. Just gotta keep going till you find the issue

Get the AutoZone free loaner tool

You can pump up the pressure in the sytem to force out coolant without getting the system so hot that you burn yourself.

he said he did the valve seals.. but i begin to wonder.....
Sadly, i am in canada, and autozone isn't here

I'll keep phoning around..

Thanks !

First of all.....Check the oil and verify that it is NOT getting coolant mixed into it! The B2600i motors are notorious for cracking the head when they overheat.

If that is good, then look at the throttle body, particularly the rear side of it.....there is a couple of coolant hoses back there that feed coolant to the throttle body so it doesn't ice up going down the road in colder climates.
If the engine overheated and the previous owner just changed the head gasket without having it checked for warping and cracking, then your head gasket could be leaking.

I know you didn't have anything to do with this, but I'm just saying...........
Always make sure the cooling system is in top notch shape whenever you redo a head/head gasket from an overheating condition.

He said he put a NEW head on
sure looks like a clean head at least.....
also put a very large Chevy rad in it, with electric fan
I've driven it a few time since I got it (clouds and all)
i check the oil every time
it's dirty, but no water in it(that I can tell), doesn't even seem to be burning much oil even

Some of the rad hoses that run near the firewall and under the intake seem a little soft
but some of them I can't get to very well to see
i started to pull it apart a bit this evening
it looks like there's a bit of blow-by in the snorkel hose, haven't gotten as far as the throttle body yet
when it's gets up to temp and you let it idle, the steam and drip(stream) seem to be coming from the firewall side
under the intake, I had wondered if he didn't do up the intake right, or if one of the hoses was bad

is it studs in the head, to bolt the intake in ?
when I get my hand under there some of the bolts seem to end inside the nut, as opposed to sticking out a bit like one would expect

I'll know more tomorrow, I took the day off to dig into this a bit more
and I'm sure I'll be back on here to find out more info

Thanks