I have a 1996 ford F250 7.5 v8 and since i have owned it I have had to refill the coolant holder a few times ever few months with about 4 cups of antifreeze. now i am starting to smell antifreeze outside the truck and a couple of times inside the truck. There are no leaks on the outside of the truck or on the ground, the oil is clean and not milky looking, my carpet in dry on the driver and passenger side floor. the heater works it didnt get really warm one day last week but i think i could have been because it was 30 below zero out. I am not sure whats going on any help would be great. Thanks

 

Can you smell coolant in the exhaust?

I don't think it is hard to get to the heater box in a '96.
You might just pull the cover off and look for liquid or any discoloration of the heatercore.

 

thanks for the reply, I cant smell it in the exhaust either. the only smell i get is from the front of the truck when u stand near the hood and sometime in the cab on the truck.

 

I've had the overflow hose on the bottom of the reservoir dry rot.
It was cracked and would leak a little all the time.
But I noticed it was wet on the inner fender.

Check the hoses at the top of the waterpump.
Sometimes the vertical heater hose leaks a little bit onto the timing case, and the little bypass hose from the intake always gets overlooked.

 

Check weep hole on bottom of water pump. Check timing cover gasket.

 

all of my vehicles with overflow bottles leak. so i just don't put anything in the overflow bottle.
i pay attention to the level in the radiator. as long as the level in the radiator stays the same, i call it good.

 

thanks everyone for the replies, Ive now noticed that when the truck is cold the antifreeze in the overflow is just about empty, but when i drive it the overflow fills up to or around the cold mark. Plus Ive notice a smell on the driver side of anti freeze but nothing inside now. Plus my overflow tank broke off and ive got it held on with a 3inch nylon cord until my new one gets here.
Thanks Again