Boiling Coolant Reserve Tank - Arnold

Ming89FJ62 · 08-31-09, 10:36 AM

I'm taking Arnold to a body shop on Saturday for a repaint/restoration evaluation and start smelling coolant. The shop is about 1.1/2 hours away and this is the longest I've had the pig on an interstate at speed. Running 70 MPH at 2,500 rpm thanks to the O/D on a nice cool day. Long story short the coolant reserve tank is bubbling like a witches caldron - the drops of brown coolant splashing on the windshield was also a clue that something wasn't quite right. The normally green/yellow coolant has this nasty muddy color. The truck never over heated, in fact the temp never varied. When I returned home I checked the oil (changed last weekend) and thankfully no milkshake so I'm pretty sure the head's OK.

Ordered an new head gasket, valve cover gasket, exhaust gasket, thermo housing gasket etc which should be in Wednesday. I'll check compression this evening when I get home but I want to have the truck running for the Labor Day weekend. This is the rebuild engine that I had put in two years ago with probably no more then 2,000 miles on it. Just needed to vent a bit. Damn junk.....but still like driving a pig.

PabloCruise · 09-09-09, 12:31 PM

Good luck!

Don't forget to read here:

http://forum.ih8mud.com/fj55-iron-pi...erve-tank.html

Ming89FJ62 · 09-09-09, 01:52 PM

Thanks for the kind thoughs. It was indeed a blown head gasket. Head is fine - no leaks or cracks just a headgasket that crapped out. Got the pig back up and running late yesterday evening - life is good.

PabloCruise · 09-09-09, 02:13 PM

Wow! You move faster than I do - glad all is o-k!

Lucy_FJ55 · 09-10-09, 09:55 PM

Nice work!