Weird Coolant leak from inside the trans bellhousing 1999 Caravan 3.3L

Hi. My wife's 1999 caravan (120K miles, 3.3L, Automatic) started
leaking coolant from inside transmission bellhousing. I heck both
heads and didn't see any leak. I pressure tested it, and the coolant
came streaming out of the inspection cover...it drips pretty severve
even without pressure applied.

My question is there a freeze plug in the back of the 3.3L engine...or
a bypass tube under the intake manifold? I have to decide to either
pull the trans to look, or pull the intake to see if there is a tube.
I'm thinking it's probably a freeze plug, but I'd like to be a bit more
confident before I get started.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks

Rwillits wrote:
>Hi. My wife's 1999 caravan (120K miles, 3.3L, Automatic) started
>leaking coolant from inside transmission bellhousing.
>My question is there a freeze plug in the back of the 3.3L engine...or
>a bypass tube under the intake manifold? I have to decide to either
>pull the trans to look, or pull the intake to see if there is a tube.
>I'm thinking it's probably a freeze plug, but I'd like to be a bit more
>confident before I get started.
>
>Any help is appreciated.
>
>Thanks

Pulling the Transmission would be alot of extra work that would not fix
anything. As you may know, water tends to travel the path with the least
resistance. So that means it could be coming from the vicinity and finding
its way to where you see it.
I don't believe there is a bypass tube on the 3.8 but there are freeze plugs
in the back of the heads, anyway my bet would be on the coolant tube that
runs up the front side of the engine and then over the transmission. You can
start to trace this line near the oil filter. -J

--
Message posted via CarKB.com
http://www.carkb.com/Uwe/Forums.aspx/dodge/200610/1

Wrench007 via CarKB.com wrote:
> Rwillits wrote:
> >Hi. My wife's 1999 caravan (120K miles, 3.3L, Automatic) started
> >leaking coolant from inside transmission bellhousing.
> >My question is there a freeze plug in the back of the 3.3L engine...or
> >a bypass tube under the intake manifold? I have to decide to either
> >pull the trans to look, or pull the intake to see if there is a tube.
> >I'm thinking it's probably a freeze plug, but I'd like to be a bit more
> >confident before I get started.
> >
> >Any help is appreciated.
> >
> >Thanks
>
> Pulling the Transmission would be alot of extra work that would not fix
> anything. As you may know, water tends to travel the path with the least
> resistance. So that means it could be coming from the vicinity and finding
> its way to where you see it.
> I don't believe there is a bypass tube on the 3.8 but there are freeze plugs
> in the back of the heads, anyway my bet would be on the coolant tube that
> runs up the front side of the engine and then over the transmission. You can
> start to trace this line near the oil filter. -J
>
> --
> Message posted via CarKB.com
> http://www.carkb.com/Uwe/Forums.aspx/dodge/200610/1

Thanks for the reply. I pulled the trans today...and sure enough, one
of the freeze plugs had a hole in it. I'll fix it tomorrow and be up
and running. Regards,

rwillits66