Radiator cap leaking

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Oct 17, 2006 | 08:21 AM

Texas Charlie

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Radiator cap leaking

I have a '99 F-350 Power Stroke, standard transmission. I am having trouble with leaking radiator caps...am on my third new cap in less than two months. Had the radiator pressurized...it was okay. The truck is not getting hot...but anti-freeze is spewing out of the cap. Any suggestions? (I have tried to post this three times with more information but without success.) Texas Charlie

Oct 17, 2006 | 08:54 AM

cangim

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From: Utah County, UT

Is it the actual radiator cap or the overflow reservoir cap? Also, take a straight edge and make sure that the mounting flanges for the caps are flat, that might be the problems as a new cap is nice and soft for sealing surface then a few bake cycles and you have a leak.

Nov 6, 2006 | 08:28 PM

Texas Charlie

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Blown head gasket

I did replace the plastic bottle on top of the radiator...overflow bottle...think they call it the outgass bottle. It did not fix it.

Found out today, after taking it to Mr. Ford that I have a blown head gasket. Have less than 70,000 miles on this '99 Power Stroke. I do pull a fifth wheel and bass boat. (not at the same time) I thought these trucks were suppose to run for a million miles without any problem. I do all of the upkeep maintenance. Has anyone else had this problem?

Nov 6, 2006 | 08:35 PM

PowerstrokeJunkie

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From: 21791

When a headgasket blows, compression gasses are allowed into the coolant passages, which eventually returns to the recovery tank (degas bottle). When the cap reaches over 16psi, it lets the excess pressure out. Compression gasses are alot higher pressure than that, and they usually take the coolant with them.

The 7.3's rarely have headgasket problems, to tell you the truth, you are the first one in a very long time that i knew of that had a headgasket problem that was not on a highly- modified engine. You must have just gotten unlucky, maybe a friday evening or monday morning engine.

The 6.0's have lots of HG problems on modified trucks, even stock ones. They have an inferior design with only 4 cylinder head bolts per cylinder, opposed to most engines having 6 bolts per cylinder.

Apr 30, 2008 | 05:12 PM

Squiggy

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From: Grande Prairie, AB

Im doing a job on a 01 F550 with the 7.3L, Manual tells me to pull the engine for this repair, Im half way into it with one head off and the other still attached, but man what a job, anyone know the flat rate time for this job?

Apr 30, 2008 | 05:19 PM

Markadeck

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From: Charlotte-Fairbanks-Bflo

Man, I don't know, 70,000 miles and a blown head gasket is kind of hard for me to believe. It's certainly possible, but can you think of any event since you've owned the truck that might have brought this on? Badly overheating it or something. I've also been reading here for years and this is the first I've seen of this situation.

Apr 30, 2008 | 05:22 PM

Smokin'

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Markadeck

Man, I don't know, 70,000 miles and a blown head gasket is kind of hard for me to believe..

Mark, it looks like Squiggy pulled up an old post from a few years ago, if you look at the post dates. Not sure whatever happend to TexasCharlie, he hasnt visited the site since January.

Looks like Squiggy is asking how long it'll take him to do a head gasket.