Any suggestions what to do first? Out of the blue my dash said "check guages", temp was nearly maxed out! My truck has always ran just below half on the temp guage, never any cooling problems. I turned the heater on full blast and continued the last couple blocks home as the temp dropped a bit. The radiator took half gallon water then everything was back to normal. Then I got cylinder 1 misfire code, unplugged cylinder 1 plug started her up and threw cylinder 2 misfire code! plugged it back in and unhooked battery, cleared all codes. Ran without any codes for a week or so, now I have multiple cylinder misfire code 0300.

 

This is a 2004 4.7 by the way

 

Start with a compression test in each cylinder. That will show if/where the leak is.

Check your oil, too. If it is foamy that's a sign you have a blown head gasket. The 4.7 head gaskets aren't too hard to change, just time consuming.

 

The 4.7 is not an engine you ever want to over heat they blow head gaskets easy.

if you had let it cool down slowly you may of saved it I cant beleive you even got the rad cap off did you poor the water in very slowly?

 

There is no sign of coolant in the oil at all. Never had any cooling issues, always ran below half on the gauge. One day out of the blue it got near the red zone never hit the redline so it never puked. When i took the cap off that day it took half gallon water and ran perfectly fine. Today i pulled the number one plug at running temp so the cooling system was pressurized and with a flashlight aimed down the hole i could see a very slow drip so i will be doing a compression test on the rest of the holes and probably tear it apart soon.

 

Well it happens I think if you have an auto that has been so dependable you tend to forget to check things out like you should and not look at the gauges as much as you should. I’m a bit of a check freak I check my oil, Coolant and power steering levels all the time I would say 1 to 2 times a week over kill but I do it. I must admit I don’t think I check my gauges as much as I should though and usually it’s only the temp I check not oil pressure. I glance at the oil pressure one time to be sure it’s at the proper level and then forget about it

 

i am in agreeance, i tend to do that as well, but it is a good practice.. you can learn alot just from fluid color, smell, and levels...