Coolant Leaks

[Thrashingrage]

Hey guys,
So, as usual, I've got a couple of questions about my '90 Bronco II. First of all, today I found a small leak in the passenger side of the radiator that looks to be coming from where the plastic and metal meet. I have checked the upper hose and the petcock, and neither one of them is the culprit. As far as I can tell, this leak has made a small, maybe 3" in diameter, dark spot on the parking lot outside of my dorm over the last 3 days.
The second coolant leak in question has been going on for a little over a month, possibly even longer, and seems to be coming from the timing cover gasket, about midway up the height of the cover on the driver's side. I did a search here and saw that the 3.0s have this problem quite a lot, but didn't see anything with the 2.9s. I looked carefully at both the driver's side head gasket and the lower intake manifold gasket, and neither one of them appear to be damaged or leaking. I put a clean shop towel on the block just above the timing cover and am going to check every day to see if any coolant is leaking from the intake manifold gasket and running down the side of the front cover.
So, as far as these two leaks go, I am wondering what my best bet is in terms of fixing them. At the moment, I am in college full-time and drive about 120 miles a week to go home and back on the weekends. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are really the only days that I have to work on the truck in the peace and quiet of my own garage as opposed to crawling around on the asphalt in the parking lot. I really do not like putting off repairs, especially when the cooling system is involved. However, even if I can come up with the money for a new radiator, it will be at least two weeks before I can put it in, as I will have to get one shipped from Bronco Graveyard in the interest of not ending up with some cheap, shitty radiator. As far as pulling the timing cover goes, I won't have time to do that until my Thanksgiving break the week of November 16th. If these two continue to leak minimally, will they last that long? Ideally, I would like to just pull the engine this summer, as I'm planning to do all of the body work and put a new clutch in, so I would rather just do everything at once. At this point though, that seems like a long shot. My biggest concerns are the possibility of the radiator going and the timing cover leak letting coolant in the oil. How long will a leaking 2.9 radiator generally last before it gets dramatically worse? Also, is there a freeze plug behind the timing cover? I actually just changed the oil about a week and a half ago and put some Marvel Mystery oil in with the Valvoline Max Life for good measure. I checked the oil today and did not see any 'milkiness' - still looks damn near new.

Anyway, thanks to anyone who read through this long post. Even 276,000 miles on the road, the Little Bronco still starts every time, runs great, drives great, and stays cool, and I hope we can keep driving for another 200,000 miles.
Thanks a lot,
Josh

 

[Thrashingrage]

Any thoughts guys? I am trying to decide when to do the timing cover job. I have no idea how long that gasket will hold on the inside. If need be, I can do the job this weekend while I'm at my parents' house. Otherwise, I will have to let it ride and tackle the project during Thanksgiving. Does anyone have experience as to how long these timing cover gaskets can hold before they start leaking on the inside?
Josh

 

[bfiakas]

For as many miles you have on the motor,try pouring in some cooling system sealant in your radiator.I had some leaks when I used Seafoam in the oil to clean out the engine and used Eagle brand powder sealant and after a year still no leaks

 

[Thrashingrage]

I am trying to follow up some of my threads that I let go for a few months, so sorry for the lateness of my reply. Thanks for your input, bfiakas. What I ended up doing was putting a new radiator in. I also replaced the front cover gasket, and found out that Ford included a design to protect against the gasket leaking coolant into the oil. There is a sort of "C"-shaped channel in the timing cover around the coolant passages to the water pump, so if the gasket begins to leak coolant around these passages, it will flow into the channel and down the outside of the timing cover, which is what I noticed initially.
Even though this is a bit obscure, hopefully someone else who has a similar leak can find this post halfway relevant. The little pathways in the timing cover should keep even a leaky gasket from letting coolant seep into the oil, at least for a little while, so there's no need to get as worried about this as I did.
Again, thanks for the help,
Josh

 

[PetesPonies]

That type of radiator leak is common for those type of radiators. The seal ends up leaking over time. They are pretty inexpensive to replace.

 

[Thrashingrage]

Yeah, I ended up finding that out. Way easier just to get a new one at O'Reilly than attempt to pull the plastic tank off and re-seal it.

Josh