Well now fellers let me begin at the beginning. 1986F-150, 302 A.O.D. and 4X4. Meticulousley (sp.?) maintained and just 128k on the speedometer. I bought the truck in Oct. 2006 and have put about 4000 mile on it since. I baby this truck..no driving in foul weather..no salt-covered roads..etc. etc. Anyways, today I went into town and noticed the temp. gauge went above the Normal range. Matter of fact it pinned the needle in the Hot Zone. Of course I panicked and crapped a blue brick right off the bat. Now the temp never went up as I was driving it..it maxed out when I shut the truck off an ran into various stores running errands. Dropped down as soon as I got back in and went on my way. Now I do understand that the temp. rises due to heat-sink in the engine when it's shut off. Without the engine running, fan cooling, radiator circulating etc...the temp. will rise. That's understandable. Anyways, when I got home I unloaded all my plunder and then went out and proceded to pour 3qts. of 50/50 anti-freeze into the radiator in order to top it up. Whar'd it all go??? Is there a "normal comsumption level" of anti-freeze in Ford trucks? I can find no leaks. I topped up the radiator and parked the truck on a fresh patch of new snow...left it run for an hour and still can't find a single drop leaking anywhere. Nothing..nada..zip. I sniffed the exhaust pipe for any sign of anti-freeze being sucked into the engine..as in a head-gasket etc. Nothing. No white exhaust fumes. By the way..that's NOT a particularly bright idea. Especially in 20deg. weather and if yer neighbors already think yer somewhat addle-brained. Neighbor Don did offer to let me use his garage as he said..."It won't work unless yer in a confined area." I'm a little fuzzy on his statement..but I git the gist of it. Audie..puzzled and perplexed..the Oldfart..

 

Check your spark plugs, you could still be eating it with -0- smell in the exhaust. Do you have any pin holes high in the radiator? Do you see wisps of steam occasionally? Does the cap have pressure when you romove it? I high hole will usually not leak coolant but will cause evaporation and thus the loss of fluid over time.

Kenny

 

If you have a small leak, it will usually not leak when the engine and coolant is warm. Turn it off in one spot and leave it overnight. Then start it up and watch for leaks. When the system builds pressure, and the engine is still cold, that's when small leaks will appear on loose hose clamps and fittings. When the engine warms up, the connection will swell up and stop the leak.

 

Check to make sure no A/F is in the oil.

 

My truck did the same thing, and you have to be careful about that. The radiator like burbs, thee coolant settles and pushes air that used to be in the system out. So fill it up then run it till it "burps". I found that if you leave the radiator cap off and look straight into the radiato after you toper off jump on the bumper a little, and you can watch the bubbles come up. I was doing the same crazy stuff you were when i first got my truck. hope that helps.

 

My '85 looses coolant all the time. Mine actually leaks out of a couple spots, though. Like was mentioned previously, it only does it when it sits overnight, and cools. Both my radiator hoses need new clamps (and possibly new hoses) since they both leak a little, and someone installed one of those Prestone "flush nozzles" in-line with the heater hose, and it leaks too.

Mine also seems to have an overabundance of moisture flowing out the exhaust... It's really noticeable when it's cold out, but my truck seems to produce a LOT more steam than any of the other vehicles on the road. It only spews out white steam in large quantities when sitting at idle, however. Driving down the road it looks more normal.

I'm hoping it's not a bad head gasket or similar, since this truck needs to last at least 'till Spring. I haven't noticed any extra moisture in the oil, though, so I'm taking that as a good sign.

Are these trucks prone to having more steam from the tailpipe than other vehicles? I've seen a couple other Ford trucks do this over the years...

 

Have you replaced your radiator cap? They do go bad over time.

 

I have noticed my truck pushes out alot of white smoke when its cold out like wild karrde mentioned, My coolant on the other hand bairly ever needs a top up. Wild karrde does your truck have the original exhaust or is it aftermarket? Mine is custom and I think because of the way the truck sits it is pooling up in the exaust.

 

Do you have a pressure tester? you can use on when the engine is cold for best results in finding the leak. Sears sells them at about $80 and are good to have for other applications to.

 

Fellers thanks for all the replys and ideas. Now I did check the oil and no contamination there. (PHEEEWW!!) I checked all the hoses, front/side/back and under the engine. By the way I have never seen so ++++ many hoses on a vehicle in all my life! They's 3 at the rad. (IN/OUT and overflow) Then 2 fer the heater. Another comes off the thermostat housing (I presume) and goes to a T or 3 way fitting..one of those lines goes to the big alumunum box on top of the engine..another branches off alongside the pass. side of the engine whar it turns to metal..then back into another rubber hose to a gizmo. I fergit whar the other one went. And I'm sure there's more!! No signs of leaks there. Looked for loose/weeping freeze-plugs. Nope. The rad. cap is holding pressure BUT..there may be some leakage there. Will check further on that. The cap has no manufacurers name on it just "Assembled in Mexico." (GULP!) I've been meaning to take the truck in for a tune-up and will have the cooling system pressure checked while it's there. Never gave it a thought that it might leak when it cools down. Hmmmm? I'll take it to work tommorrow and park it on big sheets of clean cardboard when I get home. That way I kin grub under it and look for the offending seepage. Now there was mention of pulling the spark-plugs and checking them. Hmmmm? Knowing my mechanical aptitude...mebbe I'd better just let the mechanic do that and pay the nice man $40 an hour. The last (only) time I changed the oil took 8hrs. to do and I'm still not sure where all these extra drain plugs came from! Many thanks guys! Audie...the Oldfart..

 

Watch for the burps before you go through all that trouble, and if you take out the spark plugs you only really need to do one. So it shouldnt take that long.

 

I believe the exhaust is mostly factory. If anything has been changed, it *may* have had a muffler swapped, but it's a factory style.

The exhaust doesn't smell like antifreeze, so I haven't been worried about it too much. I'm still not sure why it only blows so much white smoke (steam) at idle, but has hardly any while driving down the road...

 

It may produce the same amount of steam while moving, it just blows away before you see it. Im sure you thought of that already, just an idea. In cold weather my trucks do the same, i think its just a larger engine than most vehicles so naturally it produces more steam and exhaust.

 

Yeah, I thought of the blowing away thing, but I can watch it out the mirror (I have a really good, LARGE, convex mirror on that side to help with towing, and I can see my tailpipe easily) and while I'm under power, there's almost no steam at all.

Larger engine may make up for some of it too, but my 460 doesn't do nearly this much. It is, however, more noticeable steam output than the 351 under power.

The steam from the '85 just seems to hang in the air a lot longer than I think it should... Every other vehicle I have (or had) the steam dissipates a lot faster. I'm wondering if having dual cats into a single muffler has any effect...

 

Allright, you caught me . Does this mean you're going to put on a locking radiator cap so's I can't "borrow" any more of your antifreeze? 3 qts is less than a gallon and I'd guess you'd hold close to 3, so that's not a lot, really. My 80 will run forever,(in Texas heat) , then all of a sudden, decide to get hot, and the tank on the radiatior looks like a pincushion. I can put antifreeze in it and won't need to top it but once every couple of months, but under just the right conditions, lose a bunch of coolant in a hurry. I think you have a similar situation. A whole bunch of nearly microscopic leaks that only appear when it gets overheated and possibly a sticky thermostat or otherwise almost clogged passage somewhere that occasionally causes the temp to rise and when it does you lose the bulk of that lost coolant. Ever think of draining some of the coolant out and doing a controlled overheat and looking for coolant loss at that point?