Drove truck into town to get the leak test kit this morning.
White smoke startup @ 34*F, clean exhaust sometime before engine temp hit 180*F. Smells normal, no sweetness before and after warmup.
Seeing your exhaust is normal at 34F.
Radiator cap had leaked at cap seal by the time I got home per usual, wasn't actively leaking when I checked but the neck and everything around it is wet with coolant.
I Let the truck cool for a few hours and then attempted radiator leak test once block and radiator cold to touch, test failed. Discovered or created radiator leak on driver side at plastic/aluminum seam @ ~15PSI.
Well there you go, you've got a bad radiator.
I don't earnestly believe the leak at the radiator seam existed previously,
Why? You have a leak..... you found it, why would you think this is somehow not the leak you're looking for???
it starts to leak fluid noticably in a constant pouring stream before 10PSI now and the radiator cap appears to be good for up to 16PSI as rated, yet had still leaked before I got home at some point.
Either I'm not understanding what you're trying to say, or you're not thinking this through. If the radiator has a leak, no cap of any rating will make it not leak.
Maybe the tool is out of calibration and I inadvertently pushed it to ~20PSI? The radiator cap tests lead me to believe otherwise..
Calibration doesn't matter much for a leak. You're not trying to measure the pressure it takes to make the leak, as much as you're trying to find a leak.
So for now, the leak test is a dud bust
No, you successfully found the leak.
I'll note that the plastic clip on the reservoir return line above the cap seal is a tad loose, I can pull, push and twist it on the stem until it hits the swell. I'll swap this for a screw-type clamp.
Leave it alone, it's fine. Pressure it gets is minimal. I replaced mine with a steel constant tension band clamp, only because I bought a whole bag, for something else, and had extra. I still have the original in my parts stash, and it has around 300K miles on it.
