Over heating?

[joeyy]

The past couple days I've been doing a lot of work to the old bronco II including new valve cover seals, starter gear, new oil/ oil filter, new fuel filter(canister), and took out my AC unit because it didnt work. I noticed i have a collant leak coming from somewhere but cant tell exactly where, ill take some pics tomorrow or the next day if i can but it looks like its coming out on the seal around the bottom of the oil pan or something in the front, right behind where the main shaft goes into the engine from the belt assembly but its right behind the very bottom pulley, not sure if Im describing it right but ill try getting some pics.

i have a steady drip of coolant (about 1 drop every 1.5 seconds) while its running, this causes my coolant obviously to run low and the truck will, im guessing, over heat without warning. it starts to sputter like its not getting gas and then it wont want to start up for a while (until it cools down).

I replaced the thermostat back in september or october, idk if it went bad or something?

if the coolant drops below a certain level, will the truck automatically shut off? i bought some radiator stop leak stuff from walmart today but havent put it in. any ideas on whats actually wrong or how to fix it?

[joeyy]

it did it to me again!! just now. i was only driving for 5 or 10 mins and im assuming it over heated, i had to let it cool down long ebough for me to be able to back her into a parking spot but she started making the same noises again. Almost sounds like she isn't getting fuel sometimes, cause when i press the pedal repeadily it will rev up slightly and sometimes not sound like she is about to die. the heater hoses are extremely hot and so is the upper raditor hose so according to the manual it says that if the upper hose is hot, than the thermostat isnt stuck closed, whats going on here? this is getting rediculous cause its happening everyday now.

[joeyy]

i think the leak may be coming from the water pump but im not entirely sure, i was reading up in my manual about it, anyone got any tips?!?!

[milwaukeeace]

From the sounds of it, the leak is most likely coming from the water pump. The stalling you are describing sounds more like a fuel issue than an overheating issue. If you were overheating to the point of the truck actually dying on you... you would definitely know it!

If you haven't in a while I would definitely replace your fuel filters. Then check your fuel pressure AND volume on the rail. I believe the in tank pump is rated for around 15 gal/hr. and that should work out to around 2 pints a minute. you should also have somewhere between 30psi and 40psi of pressure at the rail depending on throttle position. If you have a fuel pressure tester then it will be very easy to check these values and determine if in fact you have a fuel delivery issue. I did and had a similar problem with having to let the truck sit for around half and hour before it would start up and run right again. This would happen after the truck was already warmed up and driven for a while. Turned out it was my in tank fuel pump that was bad.

[joeyy]

i thought it might be fuel pressure, but i literally just replaced the canister filter, and i have no idea how to check the pressure or any of that, it tends to stalh out when its been run for awhile then i turn it off and sits for a while then i run it again then it'll die unexpectedly, but when it does it it'll be low on coolnat, how can i check the fuel pressure?