Hey guys. I have an 04 F350 with a 6.0. About a month ago I started to get coolant coming out of my degas bottle, but only under towing conditions or driving up in the mountains. Funny thing is I can tow a vehicle on my trailer around town with no leaks, if I get on the highway (w/trailer) or drive up a mountain (w/o the trailer) I get coolant coming out my degas bottle. Here's some points of interest...
1. My degas bottle is always full. Even after I have leaked quite a bit, my bottle is still full. There is no room to add more coolant.
2. Tonight I started my truck (after sitting a week) and it started right up and no smoke, runs great (even passed an emissions test recently with flying colors). I removed the degas cap and turned on my high idle mod. Even after running for 15 minutes there was no coolant "movement" in the bottle and it didn't boil over.
3. If i squeeze my top radiator hose (after 15 min of high idle) I do get steam coming out my degas bottle so it must not have coolant.
4. My coolant looks clear around the edges but cloudy in the middle. It seems "seperated". The best way I can explain is it reminds of the melted butter you get with crab legs or something. The clear and the cloudy don't mix. The cloudy settles to the bottom. The cloudy is not brown as if it were oil. My oil (didpstick) shows no signs of coolant.
5. I did a coolant flush about a year ago with the Simple Green degreaser followed by VC-9 then flushed until clear then added new Ford Coolant (Gold).

I was thinking it may be a thermostat issue so my next course of action was going to be replace the thermostat, flush the coolant again and replace the degas cap as well.

Any input is greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

First start off with the Right amount of Coolant

About 1/2inch BELOW the LOW MARK WHEN COLD

Can you monitor your ECT ve EOT Temps???It would help

A sticky thermostat can cause Intermittened PUKE

It would be a Great Idea to pull the EGR VALVE and see if you have coolant there

Any SMoke???

 

I have a Scan GuageII on it so I should be able to get temps.
Pulling the EGR valve is pretty easy. I will do that and see.
No smoke to speak of, a little bit when I first start (maybe 20-60 seconds) but not while driving or pulling a load. It didn't smoke during the 15 min high idle session and barely smoked tonight after sitting for a week.

The look of the coolant has me puzzled. Could that be due to overheating in the event of a failing thermostat?

 

Well the coolant may look like that because it has exhaust gasses in it IDK for shure just guessing really

what Flavor coolant?? Gold or ELC

It would be Good to get ECT vs EOT spread after Compleate heat soak so take those temps when they max out at steady 65mph (NO STOPnGO)

thermostat should open around 190*

do you have a coolant filter???

 

Ford Gold coolant.
Do have a coolant filter.

 

That seperation you see in your coolant isn't small amounts of diesel is it?

 

By God I think we Have a Winner!!!!

Shure would explain always being Full coolant bottle with PUKE

 

Colm I let you break the rest the Bad News to Him

Id still check into the other Stuff just to be safe

But this explains Most if Not ALL of the symtoms

 

Sooooo... whats the bad news?

 

This is an expensive sentence to read... But you are probably looking at head gasket job, with new heads

 

Well Colm Logged Off

If you have diesel fuel in coolant that means inject cups leaking

Bad head/s

They can be changed inject cups but they usually leak its hard to get them to seal properly

The Dealers dont waiste there time trying to change inject cups

New Head/s and be DONE With it

 

Yup. I was just reading another thread where someone was having the same issue and the problem was a cracked head. Great.

Guess it may be time for another truck.

 

A lot of 6.0 owners won't experience coolant expulsion from the degas bottle until they're towing up a mountain or pulling a vacation trailer, etc.

The bottom line seems to be this: sooner or later, it will be time to install headstuds.

Here's a link that summarizes the issues:

6.0L Head Gasket Failure

I wouldn't just assume you've got cracked heads, but even if you did I think new heads, studs, etc would be less than replacing the truck.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

 

Javo, sorry to here the bad news but most of us has delt with replacement , I would go to the Chapters section find your location and Intraduce your self theres reputable Mechanics shops and once you get the heads and ARP studs out of the way ,your on your way for a better truck

 

Carolina Rig Thanks for That link, when all put together that sums it all up ,This needs to be in the Tech folders Mark ( Bizmic ).