so i bought this 97 grand am se with the 3100 v6 engine in it, when i bought it had a very small coolant leak, leak a couple drops, last couple days ive been driving her hard and this morning i drove about 5 miles and my low coolant light came on, went home filled it up and watched it and it dripped steadily quite fast, underneath the passenger side of the car. So i removed the wheel and splash guard and watched where it was dripping down, it was dripping down at the bottom left pully that had the serpentine belt on it, underneath the alternator. Its leaking behind this pully then down onto the ground. Anyone have any idea where the leak could be coming from or what part may be doing this? I thought it was the water pump, so i decided to check where the coolant buildup was. There was no coolant buildup on the water pump itself, but there is alot underneath it, underneath the power steering pump, and underneath the alternator. Anyone have any ideas on where this could be coming from? much help is appreciated, i have attached pictures to show the pully and where it is leaking from.

when you have a bad leak best to clean everything down with degreaser, some simple green and a hard bristle brush or toothbrush to get in the cracks, then look for drips and you know for sure where its coming from

Very good chance its the lower intake gasket that'* leaking. Id remove the alternator bracket and reposition power steering pump to further inspect. Also another possibility is the head gasket. A simple check is your engine oil. If it looks contaminated or worse a milkshake, then intake gaskets are a sure bet.

the head gasket was replaced 5k miles ago, even with the leak it would not overheat when the leak was small i could drive 100 miles no problem it would not over heat. but i will move and inspect stuff.

Head gaskets changed 5K ago? If done correctly, shouldn't be head gaskets or lower intake gaskets.....sure it'* not the water pump flinging coolant? Sometimes hard to see coolant coming out of the weep hole.....remove belt and 4 bolts to pulley, remove pulley and get a good look at that weep hole......not too hard to do....

As JW said, clean the area with something like Brake Klean......then put a pressure tester on this and look for the source.....

Well the other day the leak was super bad, so i went to the auto parts store to see what they had for the coolant system test kit and the guy there suggested since my car is a beater that i try some stuff they have for "fixing leaks". it was a bottle of bars block leak ( ) because this is a beater car for me so i would rather junk it than do a gasket on it to be honest. i mean i paid $500 for the car, the gasket would far exceed what its worth to me. Put in this bars block leak "liquid copper" when i was low on coolant, then i followed the instructions on the bottle, left it overnight and now i haven't dripped any coolant in the last 350 miles so far. I was extremely surprised on how it worked. so it looks like i have fixed the problem, atleast temporarily . once winters over i can take out the nice car..

it blocks the coolant passages too so effectively ruined the engine, coolant cant circulate where it needs it most

I was worried about that too, but actually that'* not correct, I flushed my cooling system yesterday there was no buildup in the radiator no buildup in the thermostat no buildup in the coolant tank either