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losing coolant

KobeJ05

Well-Known Member
Joined
March 8, 2009
Messages
439
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1
City, State
Marina, CA
Year, Model & Trim Level
1994 explorer 157k miles
i have a 94 explorer i just had the intake manifold gasket fixed and its still looseing coolant somewhere i cant find any leaks anywhere. i replaced the intake manifold gaskets, radiator and hoses the head gakets got replaced too. when i start it theres alot of white smoke that comes out in the morning but goes away when its all warmed up. i noticed my temp gauge rides on cold too sometimes its on normail and i also replaced the thermostat and the temp sensor. is it ok for the coolant bottle to be empty as long as the radiator is full still. i wanna run the coolant tank empty and see if the radiator stays full. my next project too is to replace the clutch fan and i also got a new fan blade. im thinking about running a seperate temp gauge. thanks :)
 



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hey... i just did all that work on my x last summer around labor day. i did everything but head gaskets. new oversized rad, hoses, stat., pump,and all new coolent. mine does thw same thing with the temp guage. my guage waves at you lol. the smoke in the morning probly ist smoke at all but condensation.

but as far as the looseing coolent... you may need to air bleed it again and so to speak burp the system of the air thats in it. it could take a few time to do even if it was done when you did the work on it last. good luck tho
 






Agree with back, you might have air in the system. You also may have a head gasket leak, which could cause your white smoke in the morning. There's a couple of tests for a leaky head gasket, including a chemical test that you do to the radiator with the cap off. if there's exhaust gasses in the coolant, this chemical will turn from blue to green. very good very accurate test.

Also, keep your coolant overflow bottle filled properly. If you do have air in the system and it burps while you are driving the coolant in the overflow will replace the air that burped out, if there is no coolant there, you will keep getting air in the system. Also, as the engine heats up, coolant expands into that bottle, and as it cools, the system will pull coolant from the bottle back to the radiator, so if you don't have coolant in there, you can actually end up putting more air into the system. Not only will air in the system cause weird temperature gauge readings, but it can also cause overheating and early cooling system componet failure, as the air will cause coolant passages to corrode from the inside out, whereas a properly filled coolant system shouldn't have any corrosion problems internally.
 






i had the work done back in august i beleive and the mechanic did a head gasket test with the dye. the gauge has been riding on cold latley
 






yur temp sensor may have failed and not giveing a reading. just out of curiosity, are you running 50/50 blend antifreeze?

nice lookin X on the link you have!
 






yur temp sensor may have failed and not giveing a reading. just out of curiosity, are you running 50/50 blend antifreeze?

nice lookin X on the link you have!
thanks heres a cleaner pic
alfred013.jpg
when i use antifreeze i added a bottle of straight antifreeze and the rest water. that temp sensor i relaced 5 times the last one i got from napa.
 


















mint condition! if you or anyone else knows how to post pic ill gladly post a pic of my
1994 EB X on a thread. i havent completly figured this site out yet.

but as far as the coolent prob. just keep checking the coolent everynow and again to make sure yur not low. it just could be as simple as air in the system with the lose of coolent. or an unmatched ration of water to antifreeze with a higher amount of antifreeze causeing it to run cooler and for the low temp on the guage.


lol on a different note, yur coolent leak wasent as bad as mine yesterday. just got done fixin puttin in a new fuel pump (sending unit rusted to nothing; leaking) but pulled into the gas staion to fill back up.. upper rad hose blew off. the exorsist puke of antifreeze.
 






mint condition! if you or anyone else knows how to post pic ill gladly post a pic of my
1994 EB X on a thread. i havent completly figured this site out yet.

but as far as the coolent prob. just keep checking the coolent everynow and again to make sure yur not low. it just could be as simple as air in the system with the lose of coolent. or an unmatched ration of water to antifreeze with a higher amount of antifreeze causeing it to run cooler and for the low temp on the guage.


lol on a different note, yur coolent leak wasent as bad as mine yesterday. just got done fixin puttin in a new fuel pump (sending unit rusted to nothing; leaking) but pulled into the gas staion to fill back up.. upper rad hose blew off. the exorsist puke of antifreeze.
got to photobucket.com its free u can upload pics and it gives u a cope u copy and pase to view your pic its called image code copy and paste it in the forum. thanks
 






cool... ill try it out
 






i was wondering too i change the oil last october but put about 1k miles on it since is the oil ok still or i need to change it? it's kendel oil from firestone
 






ive always heard to change oil every 3000 miles or every 3 months. i wouldnt worry just yet. but if yur ok with spending money or had spare time it could never hurt. just make sure its at propper level if yur not going to do an oil change anytime soon.
 






I am having a similar issue lately. I noticed my truck was running a bit warm last month. I added coolant and viola, engine started running cool again, until this past week. I don't have any white smoke or signs of leaking. I noticed the temp gauge needle was moving back and forth. So I checked the overflow bottle again only to learn it was empty. So, after reading this thread, I will chalk it up to air in the system? Any other ideas?
 






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