Thanks for a great site! I have been lurking for many years, but only recently signed up. Unfortunately, and coincidentally, I have now have a problem.

My 1999 F250, SD, V10, 4X4, 136K, is exhibiting the symptoms of a BHG. There's too much white smoke for simple condensation and the coolant level dropped a bit. The truck never overheated before the problem, and only started this behavior after a single start-up. There is also a knocking sound that is difficult to isolate. The truck has been perfectly reliable so far.

There is no evidence of oil in the coolant, nor water in the oil, and I haven't done a compression check. I do all of my own maintenance and repairs on all of my vehicles, but the truck is too big to work on in my garage. I don't want to run it this way for fear of hydrolock, etc., so I will be flat bed towing it someplace this week.

My question is, should the OBDII be showing any codes at all? I would expect that a severe compression issue, a combustion issue, or a mechanical failure (rod, oh God!), might trigger something.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Mike

 

chances are obd2 will not pick up a bad head gasket or cracked head unless it starts to missfire. or fouls a o2senser.
down on coolant i'm thinking like you. i would start by taking a cooling system pressure tester, hook it up and start the motor. see if it builds up pressure on the gauge while running.
then carefully clean the spark plug area with air blowning anything around out of the way. before removing the plugs. "note your year has the weak threads". do a compression test.give the plugs a good look at for being wet with fulid.
i'm hoping its nothing more then condensation but you never know. start by checking the free to check items first before you go trying to pull heads off that bad boy.
please keep us up on what you find