3.9L Water Leak-Intake???

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ChrisW90

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Location
Tennessee, USA
Ram Year
2001
Engine
3.9L V6
FA75BA04-E831-4574-BB69-28EA64A8B7D3.jpeg Maybe someone can point me in the right direction as my local shops have no idea on my problem. I have a water leak on my 2001 3.9L it has 82,000 original miles with no major service ever performed that I know of and has been in family for nearly all it’s life. So, I was thinking water pump, thermo, bypass hose the usual suspects. However, I notice the leak seems to be coming from possibly all 3 locations given the fresh wet appearance and looks like even the front of the intake manifold/plenum. How accurate is this? Is this possible?

My symptoms were no cabin heat, loss of water at fairly fast rate, temp gauge got hot but never close to the red area at 260 degs it stayed at a guess between 210-240 looking at the scaling on the cluster panel. Also there is no water oil mixed that I can find so I feel the head gaskets are in good condition still. Now and then sounds like a slight misfire or hiccup when starting and idle speed seems to jump around from 800-1500 range. There is, now that all accessories are removed, a lot of pink and yellow ash like build up around the thermo, intake/block mating area and top of pump.

I cannot find any definite answer online nor a shop open that can fix it in the time I need as this is my only vehicle so I am rolling dice to do myself but have never seen this on any vehicle I’ve serviced or owned for similar symptoms. Any help is greatly needed and appreciated. Photo attached I do not know if it shows as I’m posting from a mobile not computer. -Chris
 

Fast69Mopar

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5.7 HEMI
If it were me I would go ahead and pull the intake manifold. Once the manifold is off you can visually inspect the integrity of the plenum gasket because usually you can see a piece of the plenum gasket sticking out where the gasket has become hard and brittle.

As for your parts list, here is what I would pick up...

New/good useable thermostat housing

Thermostat + gasket

Bypass hose + new clamps

New heater hoses + new clamps

Intake Manifold gasket PKG.

Plenum gasket pkg.

Water pump gasket

2 x coolant
 
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ChrisW90

Junior Member
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Jul 10, 2019
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Location
Tennessee, USA
Ram Year
2001
Engine
3.9L V6
Thanks this has fixed it from what I can tell. Seems the issue may have just been thermo gasket but went ahead and replaced with new pump and gasket and new intake gaskets just to be sure as I found some white sludge in pump. All internals look great for its age and somewhat low miles. Visually no leaks are present, found a few bad vac lines and also replaced which cleared the gas cap/vac codes I was having for months now. Pressure tested the system and did not witness any drops. Seems to idle slightly higher around 1200 now but had to test start with open TB because the air cleaner cracked while trying to install so I’m figuring that’s part of that problem. JB Welded it for now and try to leave it sit until can get to local yard to find replacement or buy new.
 

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