Alright, I took my truck with 200k to Fl April 16-22, 1150 miles one way.
Well, when we got down there we noticed a very minor coolant leak from inbetween the firewall and the back of the motor and decided to chance it back home. We started filling her up with water every 120 miles which quickly sky rocketed to needing 2.5 gallons of coolant every 12 miles after about 500 miles into our journey home.
Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe the capacity of the system is somewhere around 3 gallons?
After 600 miles it was daylight in Virginia and we stopping at an Advance. We bought a miror from Advance only to find water literally spraying out from the lower intake gasket; no I'm not talking running down the back of the motor. At this point the guy at Advance made us a "low pressure" radiator cap by cutting up the spring on a 13 lb cap in hopes of keeping the pressure down in the coolant system. He didn't even bother charging us, rather just wished us luck.
We ended up gathering up 7 1 gallon windshield solvent containers, 3 2 liters, and eventually a 7 gallon container from Walmart to assist in filling her up as often as she needed to be.
7 gallon tank we used...
After dangerously pulling over for something around the 60th time in the mountains I realized how stupid I was for putting my cousin and sister at risk on the side of the road in the blind turns with cars blowing by sounding like "Nascar" as my cousin put it. After he said this I turned to him and said to my cousin "If we have to pull over again, I'm towing her home."
Your never going to believe this but we never had to pull over on the freeway to fill up again! The truck never came close to the H on the temp gauge from then on. No the hole definately did not get plugged, if you turned the heater on you could hear the bubbles going thru the core after 12 miles. We exited the freeway every 40 miles or so and filled up the virtually empty coolant system so as to not push our luck too far. As I would get out of the truck I could hear the steam hissing out of the giant hole in the back of the motor.
I knew that the 4.0L OHV motor was a workhorse but driving on basically no coolant for 600 miles without the motor overheating is incredible! At each 40-50 mile stop I would put my hand down near the lower intake to check for excessive heat - none! I would also pull the oil dip stick and feel the oil which was never too hot to touch. I'd also check for bubbles in it for oil contamination - none!
Keep in mind this was in the mountains. I attempted to come up some explaination with my cousin to ease my nevers and forget about the motor which could blow at any moment on the way home. Could it of been the synthetic oil? the low pressure radiator cap? (which didn't seem to work), the wind cooling the motor? We gave up and said to eachother "Don't question it, it is impossible. Theres got to be someone on our side."
I'm now debating on replacing the motor but am not sure if I want to after seeing the amazing amount of torture this motor can go through.
Now if you didn't think things could be any worse, they can. We also had a tie rod end which was slowly causing an increase in play in the steering. Not to mention, some bearing went out which I have yet to figure out which it is since I cannot drive the truck to listen.
My (broken) truck...
Well, when we got down there we noticed a very minor coolant leak from inbetween the firewall and the back of the motor and decided to chance it back home. We started filling her up with water every 120 miles which quickly sky rocketed to needing 2.5 gallons of coolant every 12 miles after about 500 miles into our journey home.
Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe the capacity of the system is somewhere around 3 gallons?After 600 miles it was daylight in Virginia and we stopping at an Advance. We bought a miror from Advance only to find water literally spraying out from the lower intake gasket; no I'm not talking running down the back of the motor. At this point the guy at Advance made us a "low pressure" radiator cap by cutting up the spring on a 13 lb cap in hopes of keeping the pressure down in the coolant system. He didn't even bother charging us, rather just wished us luck.
We ended up gathering up 7 1 gallon windshield solvent containers, 3 2 liters, and eventually a 7 gallon container from Walmart to assist in filling her up as often as she needed to be.
7 gallon tank we used...
After dangerously pulling over for something around the 60th time in the mountains I realized how stupid I was for putting my cousin and sister at risk on the side of the road in the blind turns with cars blowing by sounding like "Nascar" as my cousin put it. After he said this I turned to him and said to my cousin "If we have to pull over again, I'm towing her home."
Your never going to believe this but we never had to pull over on the freeway to fill up again! The truck never came close to the H on the temp gauge from then on. No the hole definately did not get plugged, if you turned the heater on you could hear the bubbles going thru the core after 12 miles. We exited the freeway every 40 miles or so and filled up the virtually empty coolant system so as to not push our luck too far. As I would get out of the truck I could hear the steam hissing out of the giant hole in the back of the motor.
I knew that the 4.0L OHV motor was a workhorse but driving on basically no coolant for 600 miles without the motor overheating is incredible! At each 40-50 mile stop I would put my hand down near the lower intake to check for excessive heat - none! I would also pull the oil dip stick and feel the oil which was never too hot to touch. I'd also check for bubbles in it for oil contamination - none!
Keep in mind this was in the mountains. I attempted to come up some explaination with my cousin to ease my nevers and forget about the motor which could blow at any moment on the way home. Could it of been the synthetic oil? the low pressure radiator cap? (which didn't seem to work), the wind cooling the motor? We gave up and said to eachother "Don't question it, it is impossible. Theres got to be someone on our side."
I'm now debating on replacing the motor but am not sure if I want to after seeing the amazing amount of torture this motor can go through.
Now if you didn't think things could be any worse, they can. We also had a tie rod end which was slowly causing an increase in play in the steering. Not to mention, some bearing went out which I have yet to figure out which it is since I cannot drive the truck to listen.
My (broken) truck...
