Missing Coolant

[yellowford]

My mom's 96 5.0 is going through coolant like crazy, the weird part none of it is leaking out or made its way into the oil. The only thing I can come up with is that one of the head gaskets are blown or worse case the heads are cracked. Am I right in suspecting this, if so looks like my spring break will be spent tearing it down to replace the gaskets, what fun. Is there something I could be missing as to where the coolant could be going.

 

[Xplorer82]

My mom's 96 5.0 is going through coolant like crazy, the weird part none of it is leaking out or made its way into the oil. The only thing I can come up with is that one of the head gaskets are blown or worse case the heads are cracked. Am I right in suspecting this, if so looks like my spring break will be spent tearing it down to replace the gaskets, what fun. Is there something I could be missing as to where the coolant could be going.

you could check around the weep-hole on the water pump. that is where my "magic antifreeze" was going. i never seen any on the ground so it was a "running/pressurized" leak

just crawl under it and look around the bottom/side of the water pump, if there is crusty **** there that is most likely the leak.

otherwise, good luck.

 

[NJExplorerFan]

Funny, I have this same problem. And I visually checked the water pump and don't see anything either? What could it be?

 

[yellowford]

Funny, I have this same problem. And I visually checked the water pump and don't see anything either? What could it be?

This is why I'm suspecting it is burning the coolant by getting into one of the cylinders, through a possible crack in the head or a bad head gasket. But I'm still not sure and don't want to tear the engine down if possible. If you watch the temp gauge while driving down the highway it fluctuates which makes me wonder if something else is going on as well.

Side note at least on my Explorer I can tell where my coolant is leaking since I apparently have a hole in my radiator.

 

[my pos mounty]

You didnt mention that this has been an issue, but has there been a sweet odor inside the truck? The passenger side floor wet? Could be the heater core. Just throwing that out there for consideration purposes.

 

[Dan Whitaker]

If a gasket is bad or a cracked head you should see white smoke from the tailpipe.

Pull the plugs and see if one is cleaner than the rest of them. When you have a coolant leak into a cylinder it basically steam cleans the spark plug.

 

[NJExplorerFan]

I know in my own personal experience, I been smelling antifreeze while the truck is running for over a year now. You simply have to stand in front or lift the hood and the scent is quite strong. The Winter has been ok, but this past Summer I had to keep adding coolant every few weeks.

 

[yellowford]

If a gasket is bad or a cracked head you should see white smoke from the tailpipe.

Pull the plugs and see if one is cleaner than the rest of them. When you have a coolant leak into a cylinder it basically steam cleans the spark plug.

Part of the problem is I'm 2 hours away at school so its hard for me to actually find out what is going on with it since it is my mom's, and she only knows so much stuff about cars.