Hey y’all, looking for some help.

Have had had a bad coolant leak on my 2007 jk the pst few days. First instinct was to check water pump and gasket. After taking off the belt and cover, I notice that that’s not even where the leak is.

Looking from the driver side of engine bay, when I put water in the radiator reservoir, it would just piss right out and not hold liquid.

Im not really familiar with how the coolant flows once through the thermostat, pump, and past timing cover. so my question is, is this something I can fix myself, or take to a shop and do? Pictures below.

Looking at engine bay from driver side.

Centralizing leak area. Triangulating between dipstick (right), alternator (top), and ac hardline (bottom)

Mating surface for timing cover? Gasket failure? Or worse, Crack on Block? Leak is coming from where the calcification is. The front-most, driver side head bolt is shown on the right.

 

Is it pissing when off?

Ideally, it’s just a crack in your coolant reservoir bottle that can be fixed with JB weld.

Only seen a head gasket do that once, occasionally misdiagnosed as a freeze plug crack in the water jacket that red RTV could handle (oil cooler tends to be more of a 3.6 issue).

If not, take a gander at the sides and bottom of the radiator, underside of the thermostat, and the hose clamps to make sure you don’t have a crack or leak.

Finally, make sure you’re using the correct ratio and type of coolant to avoid blocking the passages and/or corroding the block, as HOAT, OAT, and Universal do not mix.

Good Luck!

 

Looks like gasket to me...

 

get it hot parked in drive way hood up,. even 20mins idling or more, take your time do not rush let the magic of 18psi pressure talk to you , see me leak LIVE.
then look for live leaks. ( clean engines are more easy to diagnose)
know that any leak in the loop can squirt in ANY direction (fate) for sure hoses and the blasted RAD. at any time. (bad luck)

next is Gravity (down) and last is wind-age moving will cause nothing but lies to your eyes + all above. paRK IT AND LOok for 1 hour at 15 to 19psi, pressure (a new cap is good to have) caps fail 2ways. yes.
https://imgur.com/gallery/He5Yc8e

3.8L up to 2011 jeeps
the front cover works just like this (you asked) I have photos of all parts in this engine,
use a powerful hand light to find leaks DEEP on all sides of the block. The lower intake manifold can leak water too (means coolant)



if this does leak, it lands 2 places. oil pan and oil looks like chocolate milk, super bad that, never drive like that. ok? or rod bearings go BOOM
or to the left or right of those 2 huge hole to the head, head cooling inputs.
in most cases the leak drips from front oil pan, seen folks replace pan 3 times but water is not in the pan, for sure on purpose ever.
are not photos amazing? the water pump gasket seal is but tiny fraction of below. tell use WP gaskets fail first and are deeply hidden where eyes can not see, mine dripped to front right pan seal and bolt heads.

 

side front
YOU SAID FLOW, HERE IT IS.