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Problem with Coolant

myerzkid

New Member
Joined
August 3, 2010
Messages
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City, State
Box Elder Montana
Year, Model & Trim Level
2004 XLT V6
I own an '04 Exp. 6 cyl, 4wd. Any and all help is greatly appreciated...

Ok here's the problem thus far from beginning to end...

2 weeks ago wife goes out to vehicle and starts it up... Lets it run for about 30 minutes. Takes it on a short drive and leaves it idling for an additional 30 minutes.

She notices that it is overheating. She opens the hood and there is coolant "all over" under the hood. Also there is no heat coming from the heater and the air coming from the vents smells like coolant.

She brings the vehicle back and notices that the temperature has leveled out and is holding in the normal range... Temperature dropped to -41 that night...

Later the same day I checked and the coolant smell was still there, the overflow bottle had a large chunk of ice in it and what i believe was steam coming out from somewhere near the thermostat. the steam comes from somewhere I can't see easily.

I've checked the hoses and the vehicle maintains a normal temp but the smell, steam and lack of heat remain...
 






The answer is in the ice - the coolant probably is not mixed in the right ratio with water. The ice clogged up the cooling system and caused the overheating until it got melted down from engine heat. Then it happens again when it refroze. The smaller diameter hoses (heater hose) will probably freeze first, leading to the lack of heat.

A 50/50 mix should be good to -34 degrees. You can increase that ratio up to 60% coolant to get it down to about -60. My bet is that if you bought a hydrometer for coolant testing, the current cooling ratio is something like 25% coolant. Drain, flush and refill the cooling system, adding the correct amount of coolant and then topping off with water. Since you already had part of the cooling system freeze, it's just like pipes in a house freezing, there may be some leaks elsewhere from the expansion of the ice.
 






Thanks p71... I figured it out the next day... My thermostat housing unit was the culprit... Like you said the coolant mixture was low and water froze in the unit and small 3 inch hose underneath it... Housing unit was an older one and the back wall was worn down quite a bit and as is with all things pressurized... The path of least resitance was taken...

Thanks for your help
 






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