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Old 03-05-2014, 08:51 AM
techturner22 techturner22 is offline
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Default Big problem ):

So about a month ago, I noticed ol' girl was running hot. I stopped at a gas station, put some coolant in it after she cooled down, continued on my way, and temp ran normal the rest of the night and for another two weeks or so. About a week later, I was driving up the interstate and I had my cruise on, suddenly the heat stopped blowing hot and it was ICE COLD. Recently, she's been running pretty hot (close to redlining) and heat has been only hot when the RPMS are higher. So I checked all the lines in the radiator. All good. But when I was checking them, I noticed a substantial amount of coolant on the ground. Turns out my radiator cap is leaking and it seems to be leaking elsewhere too. I'm thinking a head gasket/heater core issue? But I'm weary to replace the head gaskets and still have the problem because that's not an easy and cheap fix. Recently replaced serpentine belt and idler pulley. Any thoughts?
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Old 03-05-2014, 08:53 AM
djfllmn djfllmn is offline
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I'm gonna go out on a limb here and check the water pump first
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Old 03-05-2014, 09:04 AM
rangerlocal rangerlocal is offline
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Default Re: Big problem ):

Make sure you don't have a collapsed hose. If your coolant looks rusty, be sure to check that pump. Pull the cap off the radiator while the truck is running and look for circulating coolant. If it's not moving, the pump impellers may be gone.
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Old 03-05-2014, 09:55 AM
modelageek modelageek is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rangerlocal View Post
Make sure you don't have a collapsed hose. If your coolant looks rusty, be sure to check that pump. Pull the cap off the radiator while the truck is running and look for circulating coolant. If it's not moving, the pump impellers may be gone.
I agree with dj and rangerlocal . Could be the water pump. I would stop driving. The 3.0 heads do not like to over heat. They will fail.

This is what i would do.

-do a combustion test to eliminate head gasket.

-investigate and find the leak. Repair as needed. No matter what install a new motorcraft tstat.
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3.0, leak, overheat, radiator

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