Ok so my friend has a 2010 6.4. 150,000 miles and never one issue with truck. So this week he takes it to a precision tune mechanic "mistake" has original brake pads replaced and has new OEM radiator installed. Original had a very slow leak. Then picks up truck drives home being 8-10 miles and has coolant leaking pretty bad on ground. Call mechanic back who stops by next day to repair leak. Mechanic calls to say truck won't crank now. Strange right? He then jumps off truck and engine now runs extremely rough blowing more coolant to ground. Mechanic drives it 8-10 miles back to his shop. Hooks up to computer that says it's lost a cylinder. Wtf? Anyone know what has happened here? Again never a issue with the truck. Went in for brake job and slow radiator leak. Very strange but trying to help my friend. Trained powerstroke tech will look at it later this week as I told him to not crank it anymore and have it towed to a dealer.

 

my best guess is that either heads cracked or head gasket blew....caused by possible insufficient coolant at some point

now it could be that the coolant drained too low before the radiator change and just not driven enough to note cracks in the heads or blowing the head gasket...most likely

or...once the system is drained...as you refil....it takes hours to really get all the air out due to things like closed thermostats, etc. you could fill the degas bottle and still have 3 gallons worth of coolant low due to air.

when ever you do coolant system work, it takes hours to get all the air out and when you think your done and drive a few miles...if you pull over...coolant level will be low again as the air is displaced.

 

 

Any update: The worlds watching???!!

Denny

 

It ended up being not much of a issue. Apparently, the original mechanic didn't use the updated radiator hoses so the fit wasn't good causing coolant to continue to leak out. The strange part though is that when the truck was started after the first install it ran horribly with all the dash lights going bananas and the engine running extremely rough. My friend turned off truck and didn't run it anymore. The next day the mechanic came to pick it up and drove it back to his shop which freaked me out. I would never had drove that truck in that condition. But he said when he picked it up it ran fine. The guy then said it lost a couple cylinders. We decided to have a certified Powerstroke mechanic look at it so towed it to the guy that does my work. The new mechanic said everything was perfect. ????

So best we can tell is the original guy either had unplugged or did something to make it run ruff then didn't either know what he was doing or was trying to take us for a ride to make some extra cash. The good news is $800 later he has a new radiator and truck still runs like a dream. So glad it didn't need what the first guy suggested as that would have set my friend back a chunk of change that he didn't need to spend right now.