Bubbling Lower Timing Cover Bolt...?...Very Odd.

[Asmoday]

So I was under the truck today and noticed something quite odd. I had just gotten home and decided to get underneath and look around to make sure everything looked good since I just did a lot of work on "Chemical Jane" over the last month and the truck was nice and warmed up.

While under there I noticed that one of the timing cover bolts had something bubbling around it where the bolt face meets the cover. It was bubbling in the very small gap at the bolt face. It looked like coolant.

Now...It's not one of the bolts where the water jacket is. It's actually the lowest bolt on the passenger side. The bolt at the very bottom. I double checked the torque and it was nice and tight. The three other bolts were normal with no signs of weirdness.

I am dumbfounded..... I don't believe there is any water jacket down that far on the block. The bolt is literally just above where the oil pan mates up and does not thread into the block very deep at all. The oil is clean and nowhere does coolant appear to be mixing with oil either.

I could not finds any other leaks...

What in the world is up...??? See pic...

 

[jdeoliveira74]

pull bolt and see if anti freeze comes out put some rtv and bolt back in !

 

[Asmoday]

That's going to be pretty hard to do since the harmonic balancer blocks removal of the bolt or obviously I would just remove it and see...

The question is....is there a coolant port that far down into the block? I think not since where the bolt goes in is basically the rasided extention of the block around the timing chain cover face....

 

[Warthog]

More than likely it is coming from the timing cover where the water pump is attached.

The water jackets are on the block. The timing cover "extends" the jackets out to where the water pump attaches.

Look at TM 9-2320-289-34, Chapter 3-10 and 3-22
I have a 2001 Pontiac V6 that is leaking coolant at that location. It requires removal of a bunch of stuff to get to.