about a week or week and a half ago i added some coolant to my truck because it was low, so i filled it just to the add mark on the overflow bottle and i checked it today and its about an inch or inch and a half down from there. I'm guessing thats maybe a pint down if that. is this normal? The truck's temp is always right at the N on the Normal gauge, its not blowing any smoke out the exhaust and its not leaking so I don't know where its going? Maybe its just evaporating. What do you all think? its a 96 with 241,000 on it always been taken care of too.

 

I’m having the same trouble. I filled it up before a trip and after we got back it was below the add line? It always seems to be low on coolant. Truck runs fine with no sign of water leaking. It’s 2002 with 55000 miles on it.

 

Ever had a water pump replaced? Especially back in those era trucks it was hit or miss how long the pumps would last. If you have 241K on your original pump, it's definitely going bad by now. On the bright side, they tend to fail pretty slowly, losing water past the shaft seal and out the weep-hole on the bottom of the housing. If you get under the truck you might be able to see a trail of wetness leading from that hole.... but if it only leaks when the engine is running, it steams away before it ever pools or hits the ground.

Duncan

 

Mine was doing the same thing. I changed the 16lb cap for a7lb cap and that seemed to solve the problem. The radiator would pull water from the resevoir but not put it back. My radiator was staying to full with no room for expantion eventually it started leaking around about half the hose clamps and then out the radiator itself. NO problems since the cap change. The resevoir stays where it should.

 

well i looked under the hood and I'm not seeing any leaks or even a trail from a leak. The engine has a coating of like dirt dust on it so i would see if there was water washing it away. I'll take a look again to see if theres anything and I'll test it again and see how much it goes down in a day and then a week.

 

Ok so I checked the level yesterday and it was about 3/4" down from the add mark, today i was on the freeway and got on it and my brother was in a car behind me and said it blew like a greyish smoke out the exhaust, so i checked the level today and it was about 1 1/2" down.

SO i'm going to a friends to do a pressure check on the radiator and see if it holds pressure but is there any othe rway to do a leak down test to check if its the head gasket?

 

I know on gassers that if you saw little bubbles coming out of the fillerneck/cap area when the engine was warm (thermostat open) and running that chances are great that there was a headgasket leak. Im not really shure on what to see if you tried this on a diesel. Another other indication is that you might be able to smell or see the diesel that gets mixed into the coolant as it blows by the headgasket. Just some thoughts...



DEAN

 

didnt do a pressure test yet but checked the oil and its clean still no milky looking to it, coolant is nice and green still so nothing mixing in it and i took the cap off about 5 hours after driving it today and it still had pressure in it. So I'm thinking odds are good that it doenst have a leak. I wiped everything down and didnt see any leak on any hoses or anything and i topped it off again to see what it does. I'll try the different lb cap and see if that works.