Somke from the vents!!

[Fhantazm]

Need help!
The other day the stupid radiator cap decided to blow(thankfully I had the hood up), and shot about 3 million gallons of coolant all over the engine. I have since rinsed the engine off but the damndest thing keeps happening. There is a coolant smell in the vents, and whenever i turn the heat on it blows smoke momentarily, and some sort of film ends up on the inside of the windshield. Now im sure coolant got somewhere, perhaps the heater core, but im not exaclty sure where. I need suggestions as what to do, to remedy this. Thank you!

 

[joehawk]

When the pressure built up in your cooling system, before the cap blew, it may have blown a hole in your heater core. That could explain the smell coming from the vents, and the film on the inside of your windshield probably is antifreeze. The "smoke" is probably a fog of antifreeze particles.

 

[Diggler]

If its a sweet smell, I would definitely agree, check your heater core.

 

[Carl D.]

I agree with the heater core, too.

 

[Diggler]

The smell and smoke could just be because of the first time the cap blew off. Fluid on the engine and the heater/vents is just sucking it in fron the engine compartment. Could last a while, before burning off.


Does your temp gauge go up?
Your cooling system is building up presure. My guess would that your water pump is gone or thermostat.
Is there any leakage on the ground? Water pumps usually have a little pin hole on them, if coolant is coming out of one of these pin holes it means your water pump is shot. Check it by filling up your rad, then warm up the truck and watch the fluid in the rad, it should start to move (circulate)(if thermostat is not seized) if it starts circulating you pump is okay(thermostat opened okay). Have you changed your coolant lately? if so, you could just have a air lock in the system!

 

[Bigred08046]

Smoke from vents

Dollars to donuts..it the heater core!

 

[Fhantazm]

Cool,
Thanks all for the help! Im going to look into the heater core.

Now for a quick question, where is the heater core located, what is the cost, and how hard is it to replace??

I havent done too much with the 4.0 engines.

Thanks!
-Alex

 

[bikerboy4lif]

the heater core is behind the dash on the passenger side.

 

[Crankcase]

Behind the glove box, there is a tray that catches fluid if leaking from the core, if it is wet, the core is bad.

 

[Fhantazm]

Cool. Thanks a lot for the tips/info!

 

[Fhantazm]

Turned out to be the heater core, a $20 fix. Thanks for everyones help!