Delica Canada | Mitsubishi Van Club

Hi all,

Starting to see coolant dripping basically around the oil pan.

I’m hoping it’s not the head and or gasket.

I haven’t lost power and the engine oil appears normal. Black that is.

Any common places to start looking?

Assuming you've ruled out the obvious sources (tired radiator hoses, head gasket leak, thermostat housing) the usual suspect is the heater pipe-to-water pump O-ring.

Between the exhaust manifold and the block you'll find a steel pipe which runs around the back of the block to the heater hoses. That pipe meets the water pump at the front of the block, and is sealed with an O-ring. The O-ring gets tired and starts leaking.
Because of the way an O-ring seals, it won't usually leak when the engine's hot (coolant pressurised) but it'll leak when the engine cools down. Basically if you find fresh drips in the morning, but nothing while the engie's running, it's most likely that O-ring.

The usual way to replace it is to replace the water pump (most new water pumps come with a new O-ring), but it might be possible to remove that pipe without disturbing the water pump. Difficult though, as there's not much room in there.

Worst case is that pipe might have rusted through if the coolant system hasn't always had antifreeze in it. That's a pain to fix.

Thanks again and my journey begins a new.

I will post my findings here.