The other day while driving to a friends, the heat suddenly stopped working...when I accelerated I noticed the heat would only work when I was moving, and then when I stopped at a light the heat would turn cold. When I got to my buddies the degas bottle was EMPTY!!!!! I added coolant and after a gallon some finally remained in the bottle. NOW....when she's not running there appears to be NO leaks, but as soon as I start the truck up a spigot gets turned on and she sprays coolant! The leak is on the passenger side, somewhere behind the wheel well.....Any thoughts on what I should do? Is this possibly a ruptured hose, something I can tear apart and fix myself or do I need to have her towed to a professional? I don't know the coolant system well enough to know what's all back there....

 

Sorry.....it's a 2000 Ex with the 7.3 PSD.

 

Can anyone offer help as to getting the Wheel well off.....I think the problem is back in that area....just above the exhaust manifold and I can't seem to get that sucker out!!! Do I need to remove the fender trim/flare to get that out or can you pull it out without having to do that?

 

get a bright flash light .. i suggest a mag light with the 3 Wat led bulb.. get under truck and get to a looking .. or on top.. there is PLENTY of room for you to find what your looking for.. most likely its a coolant hose like you suggested.. or do what i did to find my leak.. turn truck on and get to looking and if you can safely get to feeling around

 

There are only a couple places that coolant can leak on that engine. Coolant for the heater core(s) comes from the head on both sides of the engine. The port is near the front of the head on the pass-side and near the firewall on drivers-side. The drivers-side hose/tube runs up the the firewall and over near the (front) heater core. There is a tee over there and the hose that supplies coolant to rear heater core runs along side the A/C line-set and goes down the pass-side firewall into the inner fenderwell area, then under cab outside frame to rear heater core/evaporator.

There is a shut-off valve on the return-coolant that keeps hot coolant out of the heater core(s) - located above the pass-side valve cover. (the return is the hose that goes into the top of the water pump). This valve closes when MAX A/C is selected and could be the source of a leak.

Meanwhile, what coolant are you using? When ya sort out this problem, it would be an excellent time to switch to ELC.

Let us know what ya find out!!!!!!!!

I would look at the hoses near the front heater core - particularly the tees and junctions with 'hard' tubing. The fender well is kind of a PITA, but start by removing all the fasteners toward the rear then 'bend' the plastic back so you can see the lines. Ya shouldn't have to take it all the way out...

 

Thanks for all that great advice!!! I actually found the problem was either the hose leading from the firewall "T" to the heater valve or the heater valve itself, since I didn't want to run the truck and spit coolant everywhere, I just replaced them both!
However, I'm pretty sure I bought the wrong heater valve thanks to the guy at Napa for mis advice because now when I turn my heat on the rear heat goes to full blast no matter what I have the rear heater set to! Since we're getting in to summer I'm not going to worry about it now because at least I have a running truck again!!!!!

I did make the switch over to Rotella ELC Red....and I'm going to flush the system this weekend!

 

Degas bottle has become brittle and cracked. Happened to me. Replaced bottle, now all is good.