I'm going insane. Overheating again.

[bigewalksalone]

Look in the engine valley with a flashlight for coolant may be leaking from back of your thermostat housing
Did you replace your radiator cap

No have not changed radiator cap,good idea I'll try that next..

 

[imp]

I'm a big fan of using K-Seal for the timing cover gasket leak on the 5.0L and other small coolant leaks, but it won't work if you have an exhaust leak into the cooling system due to a blown head gasket because cylinder compression is 150-160 PSI and your cooling system pressure is only around 15-16 PSI at best, so there's no way the sealant is going to get pushed into the head gasket.

One way it might work is if you can determine which cylinder is the culprit and you remove the spark plug, disconnect the fuel injector and run the engine with the plug out. That way the sealant might get into the gasket and seal the leak, but that's just a "maybe" and IDK that K-Seal would be the best choice for that Hail Mary.

@koda2000
Know this is old, but, please keep in mind 160 psi cylinder pressure is DURING cranking. Running, combustion pressures run many hundreds of psi, often as high as 1000psi, and, those are HOT gases, not cold. In the big diesels, injectors (within combustion chamber, unlike our car engines) must "push" fuel in at way over 1500+ psi (instead of 40-60), sometimes over 2000, because cranking pressures are 800psi+ and combustion pressures may approach 2000. imp

 

[koda2000]

@koda2000
Know this is old, but, please keep in mind 160 psi cylinder pressure is DURING cranking. Running, combustion pressures run many hundreds of psi, often as high as 1000psi, and, those are HOT gases, not cold. In the big diesels, injectors (within combustion chamber, unlike our car engines) must "push" fuel in at way over 1500+ psi (instead of 40-60), sometimes over 2000, because cranking pressures are 800psi+ and combustion pressures may approach 2000. imp

Good point IMP.

 

[bigewalksalone]

Yea I know it's not good . Hey I noticed today while filling the resorvior,I could smell
gas in the resv. ??? what you think?

 

[RandomNerd2000]

Gas in the resv? That's not good, head gasket or cracked head is my bet. Any time you have that or coolant in your oil, that's nothing good.

 

[koda2000]

Yea I know it's not good . Hey I noticed today while filling the resorvior,I could smell
gas in the resv. ??? what you think?

Head gasket, or cracked head.

 

[imp]

Yea I know it's not good . Hey I noticed today while filling the resorvior,I could smell
gas in the resv. ??? what you think?

@bigewalksalone
Bad news, sad to say..... imp

 

[fast_dave]

Check your fan clutch. If it's failing it will overheat while driving.

Advice for NickRT, the OP of this thread:

Here's the pre-snoflake, old school, fan clutch test procedure ;-)

Obtain a length of water pump hose and fold it over once.

When the truck is warmed up and idling, CAREFULLY insert and jam the folded over end of the hose into the spinning fan.

If the fan stops spinning - your fan clutch is bad.

If the fan is able to overcome the resistance offered by the rubber hose and continue spinning, the fan clutch is good.

Hope that helps -

 

[koda2000]

Advice for NickRT, the OP of this thread:

Here's the pre-snoflake, old school, fan clutch test procedure ;-)

Obtain a length of water pump hose and fold it over once.

When the truck is warmed up and idling, CAREFULLY insert and jam the folded over end of the hose into the spinning fan.

If the fan stops spinning - your fan clutch is bad.

If the fan is able to overcome the resistance offered by the rubber hose and continue spinning, the fan clutch is good.

Hope that helps -

LOL... I suggested doing something like this several years ago and everyone thought I was insane.

Shade Tree Forever!

 

[donalds]

I use a news paper the Sunday paper yeeyee

 

[RandomNerd2000]

Sunday Paper is $3 here, the hose is cheaper and free if you maintain your truck.

 

[974X4BLACKSPORT]

I just use my hand, if it come back bloody that means the fan is working good, if no blood then fan is not working properly.

 

[fast_dave]

LOL... I suggested doing something like this several years ago and everyone thought I was insane.

Shade Tree Forever!

Even better - of all places - I learned that method of diagnosis in High School Auto Shop, and it works.

 

[donalds]

Sunday Paper is $3 here, the hose is cheaper and free if you maintain your truck.

Lol I have a bin of old papers for a variety of reasons one of witch is my kids school projects
I don't have a garden hose to cut up and I don't keep old radiator hoses bc of my dogs kids etc...
my truck is very well maintained to the point I get picked on by my friends

 

[NickRT]

A month later, I got a new cap and it seemed to help for a minute. Temperature fluctuated. Once it got to Op Temp I parked it in front of my house. Checked hoses and Reservoir. The coolant seem to rise a little but I also ran the AC and heat. I put the truck into drive, drove about 20 feet and it started to rise. My father was with me at the time and he insisted that I keep driving so I did and never ran so hot to the point where it went to the red but we turned around back to the house made it back without breaking it. I parked it and let it idle and the needle set in an unusual spot a little bit above normal operating temperature but this was a month ago and my motivation is back to fixing it. There is no milky oil, there is no smoke. And my father says that drilling holes in the thermostat would help I'm not doubting that but overall I think there's either head gasket problem or a massive air pocket somehow someway. May I remind everybody that this all happened after a coolant flush and also ran water throughout the system to get all the stuff out. When I took it on a test drive I had some car come out of nowhere and I pulled out in front of it to avoid the accident I floored it. this is an old car with 200,000 miles on it but I doubt that would break anything or cause it to overheat shortly after that little incident I was just outside my neighborhood and felt the floorboards get hotter the normal. I didn't think anything of it (nor did it overheat) I just wanted to go home and relax. When I took off the water pump I did find white particles and that seemed to be powdery when I scratch them off. I don't know if this was old sealant that the previous owner put in, and I flushed it out. Did I get scammed on this explorer?

 

[fast_dave]

Keep it simple.

Your 2nd hand Ex has 200,000 miles on it - did you ever test your fan clutch as suggested?

Just doing a visual inspection of the fan spinning is no indication of the fan clutch operating efficiency