I have a 1996 B3000 5-speed. For a couple of years now, I have observed a sweet "anti-freezy" smell in the cabin when I start it up on cold mornings (only). The smell goes away once the truck has warmed up and I'm not seeing any significant drop in any fluid levels. Any ideas what's causing this and what I can do to address it?? Thanks.

 

Pop the hood before you start it cold and look for external leaks on the engine and on the ground. Waterpumps are notorious for leaking when cold but seal up when warmed up. Could be seepage from a hose connection etc too.

 

Could also be a small leak in the heater core. In that case, I believe I'd try stop leak, as that repair could be relatively difficult on your Ranger/Mazda.

 

Dont use stop leak the water pumps dont like it, black pepper works wonders and wont clog anything but small holes... about a teaspoon will do wonders...

 

Wow - really! Pepper? I'm fascinated by some of the old time mechanics tricks that may still work. I don't mean to doubt you, but has anybody else out there tried this? good or bad results? any side effects (headache, nausea, diahrea, sexual side effects, etc)? I want to tuck this away for future reference if it's a valid cure for minor coolant leaks.

Rolomac

 

I may need to clarify my statement. If the hole is a small one then it will work for QUITE a while... Ive had it in a race car ive had for about 3 years now, those thing get HOT... i had a small hole that blew through one of my core tubes in the radiator. Small hole but at extreme temps it was spewing a stream about 6 feet forward. I got it cooled down dumped about a 1/4 of a can of cheapy black pepper (only black pepper does this as it doesnt break down really from anything) and to this day i have not had a single drip from the radiator. And it gets jostled around pretty badly. Also a friend of mine does runs from the yukon up to Barrow alaska (worst roads in the world) in a big rig and he has had MANY small holes develop from small rocks hitting hit radiator and everysingle one of them fixed by black pepper. But this is only recommended in a jam and not for a permanant fix mind you. You can use this till you get the radiator or heater core fixed. But i think of myself lucky that mines lasted this long. But again i say TEMP fix alone... and only on small holes in the heater core or radiator alone will not work if a rubber hose has a crack or a bad gasket. Good Luck -The Newb

 

Yes pepper works. I once told a guy to add pepper to his radiator because he had a small leak and could'nt afford the repair and he put a whole jar of jalapeno peppers in it and blew the works. lol Anyway, pepper does'nt break down so it plugs small leaks and no harm done.