Went to start my truck to leave work yesterday and blew the coil on #2. It's happened before and I can fix that. The other weird thing that happened was that the radiator leaked out some antifreeze. Not a lot, but a good 2 foot puddle. The reserve was still full and it leaked from the passenger side at the bottom (below the upper hose). Upper and lower hose show no sign of leakage. I suppose the drain is on the lower end of the passenger side of the radiator and it leaked from there. Would the compression from the engine cause that to happen? Or is it something more, dare I say, like the head gasket blew?

I appreciate any insight!

 

antifreeze usually leaves a trail. i would try to follow it. Coming from the radiator bad radiator, coming from the engine- more possibility's. Their are also HG test kits that have a chemical that changes color if it detects combustion fumes in the radiator. $30 dollars to know is a cheap way to eliminate/confirm the HG

 

Thanks for the reply, auskip07. I'll look into that. Curious to know that if it is the HG, how much can I run the engine before it may cause major damage? Until it overheats? I mean I'm sure that I would need to run the truck so the test kit would do it's thing.

 

While ive not had a ford do that to me. I did have a Nissan run atleast 50k miles while i changed out the radiator 2 times. Multiple long trips. Just dont over heat it and carry some radiator fluid. (if i had to do it over again i would have just fixed the problem)

 

If it's the radiator, I can understand doing that, but if it's a blown head gasket, how much should I run the engine as a test with the kit?

 

It should have instructions. But this is very similar to what i bought

 

Thanks! That was very helpful!

 

After I changed the coil and ran the truck for about 10 minutes, all looked fine. No leaks, no overheating, no idea why it happened or what caused it. I'll keep an eye on it.