chief1983
Member
- 290
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- 16
- Location
- Saint Charles, MO
Ok, so maybe the title makes it sound like this is no surprise, but I personally expected better from my 09. I take it with an empty trailer down the road the other day at 55 MPH, and 15 minutes later, it's overheating and the radiator is boiling like a tea kettle. WTF I think. I let it set for a bit, then crack the cap just a bit until some high pressure fluid starts coming out. Used a rag so I didn't burn my hand. As that weakens, I crack it more, a bit too much this time because fluid pours out from under the lid. Lots of fluid. All the hoses are hot, top, bottom, heater core, etc. The overflow tank was full and had been bubbling when I first got the hood open. So I refill the radiator, and it takes about 3 gallons. As far as I can remember, that's almost the entire radiator that had somehow managed to empty itself onto the QT parking lot. So I go down the road again, hoping I can limp it home, and I have to go a bit farther once it overheats again and it really gets a boil going. This time, when I finally get the lid cracked, no liquid pressure, all air escaping. It still takes more than 2 gallons to fill the radiator though. I know it was boiling out of the overflow tank, but I was surprised that that much would have boiled out.
Recent things that have happened to my cooling system:
Last fall, replaced the thermostat with a NAPA hockey puck. Possibly put it in backwards, but could I have only just now realized in this extreme heat?
Recently, the lower radiator hose fell off, and there was a leak in the heater core hose. I wasn't driving at the time, but I feel like the guy I lent my truck to managed to miss the overheating light, until the pressure burst the hose off and he lost all the coolant. No telling what damage was done when that happened.
After replacing the heater core hoses, I did a Prestone radiator flush.
With all this, I'm having a hard time narrowing down causes here. I could try running it without a thermostat to see if there is something wrong there, but the heat in the top hose makes me feel like it's working as well as it can. The water pump isn't making any strange noises, or leaking, so I'm not sure how else I could tell if it has failed. I'm afraid of a cracked head gasket, but I haven't seen any signs of condensation coming out of the exhaust and the oil is as black as normal, with no milkiness to it. The time it takes pressure to escape from the system once the engine is stopped also seems to make me feel like it's not the head gasket, but I could be wrong. One of my biggest suspicions at this point is that the flush loosened some debris that is causing problems for coolant circulation, which I hope I could fix with more flush or removal of hoses and attempting to clear any debris I can reach or see. Without a diesel compression tester, or other fancy mechanic hardware, are there any other tests I could do on various stages of the cooling system to narrow this down some? I plan to refill with water and try to actively observe the order of events as it overheats, whether it's getting low first, and then overheating, or overheating and then boiling itself low. The low coolant light doesn't come on until after I cool it and release the radiator cap, so I think there's some hope it's not leaking into the combustion chamber. The engine also sounds as good as it ever has. Does anyone have any suggestions here? I'll do the heat check on the radiator mentioned in the -34, but there's not much else the TMs suggest that I haven't checked or am equipped to do at the moment.
NAPA AUTO PARTS
That's the thermostat, is it supposed to have the end pointing up in that photo going into the crossover pipe or pointing out towards the top hose? It kind of sat either way, but I think I tried to do it based on it needing to open on pressure from the engine side, to let fluid go to the radiator side.
Recent things that have happened to my cooling system:
Last fall, replaced the thermostat with a NAPA hockey puck. Possibly put it in backwards, but could I have only just now realized in this extreme heat?
Recently, the lower radiator hose fell off, and there was a leak in the heater core hose. I wasn't driving at the time, but I feel like the guy I lent my truck to managed to miss the overheating light, until the pressure burst the hose off and he lost all the coolant. No telling what damage was done when that happened.
After replacing the heater core hoses, I did a Prestone radiator flush.
With all this, I'm having a hard time narrowing down causes here. I could try running it without a thermostat to see if there is something wrong there, but the heat in the top hose makes me feel like it's working as well as it can. The water pump isn't making any strange noises, or leaking, so I'm not sure how else I could tell if it has failed. I'm afraid of a cracked head gasket, but I haven't seen any signs of condensation coming out of the exhaust and the oil is as black as normal, with no milkiness to it. The time it takes pressure to escape from the system once the engine is stopped also seems to make me feel like it's not the head gasket, but I could be wrong. One of my biggest suspicions at this point is that the flush loosened some debris that is causing problems for coolant circulation, which I hope I could fix with more flush or removal of hoses and attempting to clear any debris I can reach or see. Without a diesel compression tester, or other fancy mechanic hardware, are there any other tests I could do on various stages of the cooling system to narrow this down some? I plan to refill with water and try to actively observe the order of events as it overheats, whether it's getting low first, and then overheating, or overheating and then boiling itself low. The low coolant light doesn't come on until after I cool it and release the radiator cap, so I think there's some hope it's not leaking into the combustion chamber. The engine also sounds as good as it ever has. Does anyone have any suggestions here? I'll do the heat check on the radiator mentioned in the -34, but there's not much else the TMs suggest that I haven't checked or am equipped to do at the moment.
NAPA AUTO PARTS
That's the thermostat, is it supposed to have the end pointing up in that photo going into the crossover pipe or pointing out towards the top hose? It kind of sat either way, but I think I tried to do it based on it needing to open on pressure from the engine side, to let fluid go to the radiator side.
