Coolant System Maint.

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mwebfj60

mwebfj60

10 Year 15 Year
Joined
Sep 17, 2010
Threads
76
Messages
1,740
Location
Central Valley, CA
Mileage put into service: 233,014
Mileage today: 301,686
75,539 miles corrected.

The weep hole was letting out a little stream of coolant today. At only 75,000 miles, I suspect the recent problem with my HB played a role in this.
Originally I thought it was the little 45 degree oil cooler hose. Kind of a bummer as I will be down a few days waiting on parts. First unplanned maintenance where I'm down more than a day or so.

I've gotta say good things about @orangefj45, I called him up at 6pm on a Friday and he called back within 10 mins. That's exceptional customer service in my book.

Since I had to break it all down, I'm going to replace all the hoses. The fan clutch was replaced when I put the new power steering pump in 2 months ago.

The Fan shroud mod made the tear down so much smoother. Not pulling the radiator.

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Eventually everything disintegrates. Time for a freshen up!

A "trail repair" for those who might suddenly find coolant pissing out of the bottom of the water pump (or any other place) when far from home - so you can still drive the truck, is to run the cooling system unpressurized. When the coolant isn't pressurized to 14 psi like it normally is when hot, it won't leak any more than it does when the engine is cold and off.

All you need is another radiator cap that has the internal check valve removed (vise grips work well) to run the system unpressurized. If you wanted to do it optimally, you can also swap out the 190° t-stat for your spare 180° t-stat you brought with you for emergencies (along with gaskets)

I ran my 2F like that for years. Even out in the 100° desert in the summer. No problem (I was too lazy to fix a leak).
 
OSS said:
Eventually everything disintegrates. Time for a freshen up!

A "trail repair" for those who might suddenly find coolant pissing out of the bottom of the water pump (or any other place) when far from home - so you can still drive the truck, is to run the cooling system unpressurized. When the coolant isn't pressurized to 14 psi like it normally is when hot, it won't leak any more than it does when the engine is cold and off.

All you need is another radiator cap that has the internal check valve removed (vise grips work well) to run the system unpressurized. If you wanted to do it optimally, you can also swap out the 190° t-stat for your spare 180° t-stat you brought with you for emergencies (along with gaskets)

I ran my 2F like that for years. Even out in the 100° desert in the summer. No problem (I was too lazy to fix a leak).
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That's a great trail fix!
 
Spike Strip said:
The problem is you're running Bud Light in the cooling system so the truck has to stop every half-hour and pee ...

:hillbilly:
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Yep...Once you break the seal
 
Parts should be in tomorrow. A little prep work and cleanup today. It's always a good time when you break out the baking soda blaster.

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With a light coat of Meguiars Natural Shine Protectant.

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I second that... really wish I had done that when I was doing all my head work. Still on my list of things that need to happen, just haven't gotten to it. Maybe to the muriatic acid flush for the front heater core to help clean things out.
 
Flushing the heater core.

I'm using some Prestone Flush and Clean. Seems pretty mild. I mixed up a batch into the 5 gallon bucket, put in a submersible pump with the inlet toward the top of the water. That will push the water through the core then the return goes into the bottom of the bucket. The solids should settle to the bottom and clean mix should suck in above.
I will let it run for a couple hours this way, then swap the hoses to push the water the other way.

Once that's done, I will flush with fresh water then distilled water to finish.

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Damn that is a good idea... I may have to give that a shot. So what size pump did you end up using for this project?
 
gregnash said:
Damn that is a good idea... I may have to give that a shot. So what size pump did you end up using for this project?
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It's just a little pond pump. Lift was like 12 ft and 600 gallons per hour or so. I had it laying around from a yard project.
It worked pretty well, Kind of hard to say exactly how much junk was flushed out, you know how it is pouring water out of a bucket with a little bit of fine dirt in the bottom. Maybe a Tablespoon or Two.
 
Great pump - I use the same thing to flush the exhaust heat-exchange on a marine diesel. Works like a champ. Plan to use it for the same thing when I replace my radiator (twice now in as many moths due to rock damage)

Re running the cooling system un-pressurized, I think you can use your stock cap and just not turn it all the way closed. If you twist it only to the first "stop" or detent you are essentially not sealing it to run pressurized...right?
 
chichiflys said:
Re running the cooling system un-pressurized, I think you can use your stock cap and just not turn it all the way closed. If you twist it only to the first "stop" or detent you are essentially not sealing it to run pressurized...right?
Click to expand...

I've done that, cap loose, when I had a large crack in the top of my 80 series rad. Worked fine around town for quite awhile, even in summer. Never used A/C though.
 
The pond pump flush looks great I'm no mech so I'm not sure where you hooked up all the clear hoses to do the flush.

Where is the rear heater core located?
 
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