Ah, another piece of the puzzle. One more thing to take care of.

That new leak? The location sounds like a freeze plug. Use a cooling system pressure tester to be sure.

Fix the known problems in front of you. Then proceed again with troubleshooting.

 

I hope it is just a freeze plug, but it seems strange that you had steam coming repeatedly from the rocker covers.............as if maybe there is a head gasket involved.

But, if the truck has been running without a thermostat for long, there could be a build up of condensation in the crankcase.

 

Ken, Ken, Ken,

Ixnay on aringscay amesJay!!!

He doesn’t need any help thinking of doom and gloom possibilities. He’s a master at it all on his own. You name any scenario and he has a nearly supernatural power to assume the worst possible outcome.

The location of the steam will be a big clue. One valve cover or both? Inboard edge, outboard, or both? If outboard and only on side of the engine, it’s probably just coming from below and wrapping around the edge. A cooling system pressure test will tell you right away.

 

If it's the freeze plug, I bet he is going to have the same problems I had with my ranger pickup. It was so clogged with rust the radiator would not even drain. Got it all cleaned out and everything was good except no heat in the cab. Heater core was clogged with rusty gook. Flushed it all out again, very rusty coolant. Everything was good and then lost heat again. Same thing. Instead of wasting coolant, I put pure water in it, ran it for a few days, flushed it out and refilled and drove it again. Did this about 3 times, finally got it cleaned out, put coolant back in it, and then I started having the mysterious leaks. Two of my freeze plugs were leaking. Seems when I finally got it cleaned out, it started leaking.

So I tried the rubber fit it freeze plugs. I could not get one to stay in, it kept popping out at the worst times. Finally pulled the engine, replaced all the freeze plugs, they were in bad shape. Glad I pulled the engine, this was a 2.9 and it had a freeze plug behind the bellhousing that was seeping also. Put some new gaskets on it also, dropped it back in place, and no more problems.

 

James,

Did you use any kind of chemical cleaner for flushing the cooling system? If so, my hunch is this broke up some of the existing crud and caused two things to happen:

1) Bits-O-Crud migrated to the radiator and plugged at least some of the passages, causing the overheating you've experienced.

2) The freeze plugs were heavily caked with crud, which helped prevent them from leaking. Wash away that crud and now a marginal freeze plug is more likely to leak.

 

Yeah... I used flush cleaner. I should know better honestly. I know not to use seafoam or other oil crud cleaner stuff in an oil change. That crud is sealing up all the worn out rings I am pretty sure.

Steam was coming from both sides of motor and on the outside of each side. Only saw water running down the passenger side of motor.

Replacing freeze plugs I think would involve pulling the motor in my case unless I could unbolt the headers easily enough.

 

Stuck rings due to carbon and gum is more likely as far as that goes.

 

Use a cooling system pressure tester to confirm the source of the leak. Heck, if leaking as badly as you've described, you might just pour water in and watch it run back out.

If you don't have a tester, Autozone loans them for free.

 

Yeah, it leaks pretty good. Just can't trace it back to where I can see.

I need to arrange a nice solid place to work on things. Gravel in my barn doesn't do well with jack stands. Would like to have to truck raised for more clearance to get under there to avoid hot exhaust pipes.

Funny thing about AutoZone's loaner program. You basically buy the tool but get to return it for full refund when you are done with it. I will check in there to see about getting it. I have time rest of the week to make double sure I am going to be messing with the freeze plug or head gaskets with some tests. Is a compression test good to catch a blown head gasket? The motor runs pretty good still minus the overheating but want to really rule things out as well.

 

It isn't definitive but it's pretty good. Usually two adjacent cylinders that are real low in compression is diagnostic. The plugs in those cylinders will be very clean, white smoke out of the exhaust, etc.

 

Got our shop cleaned up and tidy for the winter so I am able to pull the truck in there and working on flat concrete rather than uneven gravel. Shop is all warmed up and getting ready to replace the freeze plugs and hope that is all my of my problems in that department.

 

6hrs later and got the plug replaced. Hole rusted right in the middle of the steel plug. Back side was all rusty. That is what you get with just running water (hard water at that) in your system. The flush cleaner definitely did it's job by breaking up the rust and uncovering that thin stop in the plug to get a hole. I'll have pictures when my phone gets charged up.

My neighbor runs his own mechanic's shop and invited me to use his lift. God bless him. It was still a bear to deal with but would have been like 5 bears if I was on the ground with jack stands.

Getting some 50/50 back in it and see what happens next.

 

Here is a shot of the plug.



Filled up the block and the radiator (50/50 this time) and got up to temp. Not leaks and and temp gun hovered right around 185 - 195. Test drive later tomorrow / go get new tires. We'll see what happens with a real shake down.

 

30 minute round trip proved successful. Still going watch things like a hawk for a while.

Also, the tire store was closed... That was a bummer.

 

Glad to hear the good news. Don't forget to plan to replace the other plug soon. If one rusted out from the inside, the others aren't far behind.