Been working my butt of trying to get some hay pasture fenced in to turn the Longhorn out to graze. Haven't seen it this dry and hot in this part of Texas in many a year. Yesterday after finishing up and turning the cattle loose I was heading to the back pasture to clean up tools in 100 plus degree heat and a beating sun with out a cloud in the sky. When all of a sudden I take notice when the chime goes off in the truck and dash reads "Check Gauges". Whoo, the temp gauge is pegged full blown top of the meter.
No need to as the Owners manual says "Find a safe place to pull over and turn off the motor". I was in the middle of no where!!! My biggest concern was the exhaust/cat setting dry matter and the pasture on fire.
Now I stop to ponder, what could be the problem and how do I get out of here. I am only 200 acres and three runs of nice fresh very hot electric fence from the barn in an area that never receives a cell phone signal. I could walk the long way around, 1/4 mile to where I parked a tractor by the creek, take the tractor to the barn another 1/4 mile where I parked my 4-wheeler, then drive the Yamaha Grizzley home 60 miles down I-35...NOT!!
Checked the cell phone and for the first time ever I had a signal in that location. I called a neighbor and asked him to bring down some fresh water and antifreeze. While I was waiting on him to get there I was looking under the hood at my bullet proof V-10 wondering what went south and left me sitting. Then I saw it, the top radiator hose clamp was sitting just a little off kilter. I grabbed it and tugged alittle and a piece of it came off in my hand. The other piece had been up on so tight it had become inbedded in the bubber and had to be prided off. A quick call to the neighbor and asked him to bring a radiator hose clamp, but I wasn't sure on the size so to bring a couple of different sizes. When he got there we replaced the clamp and began to fill the cooling system with fresh fluids, when he looked down at the same hose where it attaches to the motor and says "Is that clamp busted also"...yeap, sure was. Busted into three seperate pieces, yet applied so tight that it was also imbeded in the rubber hose and looked to be fine. Lucky he had brought more than the one clamp.
When we looked close at the clamps you could see that parts of the clamps had been broken for a period of time. And the remaining part of the clamp had just given away from weakness. Oh, if you are wondering, the truck only has 31,000 miles on her, and does get maintained on a regular basis.
Moral of this long story is: I still believe the V-10 is a bullet proof, bargain of a work horse engine that delivers whatever you ask it to do. And asks very little in return.
But Ford radiator clamps SUCK BIG TIME. Check your radiator clamps, these were small hair line cracks that you would not have seen unless you were looking for them very hard, plus the cracks were on the bottom where they would not be visible to the roving eye.
I Just wanted to give a heads up on a what could be a weak link under the hood.
You may want to be safe and replace Both clamps, could be a small investment that saves you big bucks and problems down the road.
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2006 F-250 Reg Cab XL V-10 6-Speed Gas Beast
2008 F-550 Regency Hauler 6.4 PSD Diesel Beast
2006 Ford F-150 Crew Cab XLT 4.6 V-8
1977 F-600 Cab-Chassis V-8 4-speed 2-speed rear end
2006 Lincoln LS V-8
Very true about the clamps. Many a person has been stranded due to those weak clamps failing at the wrong moment.
It's good you bring it up again. There are a few things a person should do when they get a new Super Duty (brand new or new to them) and one is to replace the OEM hose clamps with real hose clamps.
Good reminder for all of us. Unfortunately you had to find out the hard way...
Nope, no damage....that I am aware of. Refill coolant and new clamps, good as new. I noticed a small flow of steam around the top radiator hose and then noticed the clamp was busted upon digging a little deeper. Of course before I noticed the small steam trail, my mind was heading south into bigger "What If" thoughts. I even checked the oil dip stick to see if there was water in the crank case.
As Monsta said, one of the first things that should be done to these trucks is change out the Ford piece of crap hose clamps. I learned the hard way.
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2006 F-250 Reg Cab XL V-10 6-Speed Gas Beast
2008 F-550 Regency Hauler 6.4 PSD Diesel Beast
2006 Ford F-150 Crew Cab XLT 4.6 V-8
1977 F-600 Cab-Chassis V-8 4-speed 2-speed rear end
2006 Lincoln LS V-8
Well I still got the factory clamps on mine, thanks for the reminder. Technically the V10 wasn't at fault here. I will say though some of the aftermarket hose clamps on the market today are very cheesy. I use them quite a bit at by business and the quality isn't what it used to be. I've had problem with skipping teeth and sharp edges. Just examine what you buy.
That thing starts chiming before anything major happens, and it would have gone into "limp" mode anyway - I believe the 3-valve still does have the overheat-limp-mode where it alternates banks of cylinders (running on only 5 at a time) to keep the engine temp down.
There was a TSB on those clamps back for the 2001's - my '01 had the clamps changed with only 10 miles on it, still sitting brand-new on the dealer's lot. My OASIS report says so
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'01 F250SD SC SB XLT V10 4x4 auto 3.73 Warn hubs Volant CAI, eBay headers and y-pipe - 5-star custom tunes on SCT X3
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'74 F250 Highboy FE390 deceased! I've been wrong before, I'll be wrong again. Just wait and see.
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I will say though some of the aftermarket hose clamps on the market today are very cheesy. I use them quite a bit at by business and the quality isn't what it used to be. I've had problem with skipping teeth and sharp edges. Just examine what you buy.
