Yeah bought a 98 F150 V6 from a family friend last summer. Nice truck handles well and gets up and goes when I need it to. My coolent level has been low for a while not low low but low enough that i should add some coolent and i know i havent added any for 6 months to a year. Now I just went out and checked to see the coolent level now and there is still coolent in the resevoir but its a good 6 inches or so low. I have had no white smoke and no loss of power. So I guess my question is how screwed am I is it fixable or even if i have the gasket replace is it probably going to go sooner than later. From everything ive read so far my first impulse is to start shopping around at the local dealerships and try and trade it in before the engine goes. Im just wondering if anyone knows what the cutoff point is for fixing this issue if its even fixable. Im sitting at about 86,000 miles and lately ive been doing alot of city driving in sunny south florida. Any advice would be great.

 

check these threads for more info:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/s...d.php?t=348912

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/s...d.php?t=340552

based on my experience, it is certainly fixable and worth fixing.
But, be sure you don't have a leak somewhere else. You never know, it might just be dripping out somewhere.

 

Well I think im going to hit a couple dealerships tomorrow and see what kind of deals i can get on something a bit newer and see what they will offer me for my truck as a trade in. After reading a bit on other forums just because you get the gasket replaced before the engine knocks or you do any major damage doesnt mean that the engine wont go after the repair anyway. When faced wit the choices of trading in my truck and spending a couple thousand dollars toward something new it sounds better than spending 400$ to repair a gasket and then still possibly have to pay out for a new crate engine and still being stuck with the same vehicle.

 

Seems like an awful lot of trouble for no more coolant loss than that. If you had gasket issues, it would probably leak more than that. I added coolant weekly, and not a little, a whole resevoir full. I would follow Brian's advice first, and seek out other sources of the leak.

 

Well I added some coolant today and im going to monitor the level over the next 2-3 weeks and see how fast it drops. In the meantime im going to start shopping around. Ive always wanted a mustang so I might use this as my excuse to go out and get one

Overall im just uncomfortable with the idea that one morning i can be getting ready to go to work and have my engine blow and be screwed, unable to get to work and out a vehicle till i can get a new engine in it...