Coolant problem/question
Thread Starter
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 15
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Coolant problem/question
Hello,
Yesterday I got to use my "new" 1986 D150 out on the road for a longer period of time at higher speed. No big deal but when coming back from 30 minutes of driving at 45-55mph, I parked the truck in te backyard and I suddenly heard a big gurgling sound coming from where the coolant expansion tank is and coolant was leaking down under the car on the left side, and a little on the right because of a small slant. It was obviously coming from the left, and still gurgling. I couldn't open the hood right away because it was extremely hot to the touch. A while later, it was still hot but I opened it using a glove.
First question: is it normal that the hood area becomes that hot to the point of not being able to open it?
Once open, there was no visible leak. The leak itself had stopped a couple minutes after stopping the truck. The coolant level was an inch above the max mark. Today as the engine is cold, the level is below the max mark, nohing leaking. I can't see any bad hose but it's not easy to tell. What could be the problem? It seems that it leaked only *after* I stopped the engine.
At the top of the expansion tank, on the neck of the tank itself, there is a short platic neck that looks like something that would allow the coolant to escape if the level gets too high? Is that by design and is what happened to my truck normal? I don't like the idea that polluting coolant would be dumped out whenever it gets a bit too hot (boiling?), and wonder why it got that hot after a period of driving that didn't seem too long or too stressful.
I had to change the water pump and 7 hoses myself on my Volvo 760 V6 and that was a real PITA so I'm not in a hurry to renew the experience of fixing a coolant system.
Any idea?
Thanks!
Yesterday I got to use my "new" 1986 D150 out on the road for a longer period of time at higher speed. No big deal but when coming back from 30 minutes of driving at 45-55mph, I parked the truck in te backyard and I suddenly heard a big gurgling sound coming from where the coolant expansion tank is and coolant was leaking down under the car on the left side, and a little on the right because of a small slant. It was obviously coming from the left, and still gurgling. I couldn't open the hood right away because it was extremely hot to the touch. A while later, it was still hot but I opened it using a glove.
First question: is it normal that the hood area becomes that hot to the point of not being able to open it?
Once open, there was no visible leak. The leak itself had stopped a couple minutes after stopping the truck. The coolant level was an inch above the max mark. Today as the engine is cold, the level is below the max mark, nohing leaking. I can't see any bad hose but it's not easy to tell. What could be the problem? It seems that it leaked only *after* I stopped the engine.
At the top of the expansion tank, on the neck of the tank itself, there is a short platic neck that looks like something that would allow the coolant to escape if the level gets too high? Is that by design and is what happened to my truck normal? I don't like the idea that polluting coolant would be dumped out whenever it gets a bit too hot (boiling?), and wonder why it got that hot after a period of driving that didn't seem too long or too stressful.
I had to change the water pump and 7 hoses myself on my Volvo 760 V6 and that was a real PITA so I'm not in a hurry to renew the experience of fixing a coolant system.
Any idea?
Thanks!
Registered User
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 23
Likes: 0
RE: Coolant problem/question
well i dnt know why it got that hot in the first place, but i think it mite have leaked when you turned it off because when you turn the engine off it actually gets hotter since the coolant flow has stopped and then it slowly cools down afterwards. so maybe when that happened it made the coolant hot enough to "boil" over. [&:]
