Need help! Coolant issues
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From: Pryor
Need help! Coolant issues
My brother has a 1996 Powerstroke and it has began to act crazy. After sitting and idling for a while it has begun to puke out cold coolant. The engine temp gauge shows in the middle or a little below that but it pukes out cold coolant out of the overflow. The heater in the cab also gets where it won't blow out anything but cold air when this happens as well. He already changed the thermostat and apparently that didn't fix it. It did seem to help it temporarily. It seems to happen when it is allowed to idle for extended periods of time. The first time it happened while he was letting it idle trying to let the truck warm up so he could use the heater. The truck showed that it was getting warm, but the heater got progessively colder. WTF?? Has anyone heard of this before??
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From: Pryor
That could make it push out COLD water?? I know the thermostat on this thing looked like it was actually two thermstats together. Are the coolant system and the heater system sort of separate?
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From: pearland
just sounds like something is moving around in there......i.e. closing off or clogging. no hot water through your heater core on a cold day = cold air out of your heater. when is the last time the system was flushed?
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From: Pryor
Don't know when it was flushed. It has a bit over 100K miles and he recently purchased the truck.
I think I may have figured out the problem. This site sells thermostats and they have a good explanation.
http://www.dieselsitetoo.com/index.a...ROD&ProdID=186
If this is what is happening, then the majority of the coolant in the engine could be getting hot and expanding and then pushing out the cold water in the front of the engine. If the engine is running fast enough (i.e. not idling) then it probably pushes enough water in the right direction to maintain cooling and prevent this problem. The truck has been driven across country with no problems. It is extended idling only that causes problems. Even though he changed the thermostat, he may have put in the wrong one. The previous owner probably did the same thing.
I think I may have figured out the problem. This site sells thermostats and they have a good explanation.
http://www.dieselsitetoo.com/index.a...ROD&ProdID=186
If this is what is happening, then the majority of the coolant in the engine could be getting hot and expanding and then pushing out the cold water in the front of the engine. If the engine is running fast enough (i.e. not idling) then it probably pushes enough water in the right direction to maintain cooling and prevent this problem. The truck has been driven across country with no problems. It is extended idling only that causes problems. Even though he changed the thermostat, he may have put in the wrong one. The previous owner probably did the same thing.
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Joined: Aug 2003
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From: Phoenix, AZ
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From: Pryor
Has anyone ran into this problem before?? It seems like the part stroes should be aware of this glitch and should want to pin a guy down on exactly when his truck was made, even down to manufacture date, to know which thermostat he needs. If this can cause major engine problems, they need to keep people from getting the wrong one.
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Fleet Mechanic
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From: Phoenix, AZ
Don't mean to scare you, but you have read the post on the 203 degree thermostat on the DieselSite.
Have a friend that bought a non-Ford thermostat from NAPA and bought it on the basis of "it looked" like the correct OEM equivalent. Ran for about 100 miles, and his PSD did exactly what you described above.
Had it towed to Ford for warranty. They would not honor it because he installed a non-Ford thermostat (and the wrong one at that).
Result: he paid for a complete 7.3 rebuild.
Hope your situation is turns out better.
Have a friend that bought a non-Ford thermostat from NAPA and bought it on the basis of "it looked" like the correct OEM equivalent. Ran for about 100 miles, and his PSD did exactly what you described above.
Had it towed to Ford for warranty. They would not honor it because he installed a non-Ford thermostat (and the wrong one at that).
Result: he paid for a complete 7.3 rebuild.
Hope your situation is turns out better.
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From: Pryor
Well my brother went to the Ford parts counter and got the correct thermostat. Thing is, the one he got from Autozone WAS the right one. It had the long stem like it is supposed to have. So now he's left wondering if the new thermostat was just junk???
Believe me, the Dieselsite thing about the thermostats will scare a guy!!!
Believe me, the Dieselsite thing about the thermostats will scare a guy!!!
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From: Pryor
I doubt it is the head gasket, as it runs fine. Doesn't lose any coolant and only happens when you let it idle. Running 80 mph across country and it has no problems. Also no air bubbles in the coolant, like from exhaust.
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From: NW
Just to be safe, You should physically squeeze the radiator hose before starting, when the engine is cold, then start the engine and immediately do the same squeeze in about the same place, to see if there is a rapid pressure buildup. If there is, you are probably leaking compression into the cooling system somewhere, and prematurely building up pressure in the coolant, causing it to blow out cold coolant. A frozen thermostat could do the same, but there would be a time delay until the engine had built some heat.
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mdh1701
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May 6, 2014 12:27 AM