Just picked up my brand new 2000 1500 4x4 sport 88k last night!

moved down from a 3rd gen with salvage title to this ride.

Drove it home (3hours) last night and no problems noises anything.... get to work and the guys want to take a look at the truck and I do notice I smell a little antifreeze. can't find any on the motor or anything leaking below.

I just got to work so the truck was at running temp. I have been watching the gauges and it does not get very hot. It runs a little below half on the temp gauge.

The reserve for the coolant was totally empty when I got to work.

with this info. am i low on coolant or in danger of blowing the head gasket?

I also think that this truck has an aftermarket Trans cooler installed. (looks like there are two radiators)

 

My guess would be a small water leak of some sort. Do you have water in your il or oil in your water? My resivore started going empty and I had the antifreez smell for a while found a tinny hole in the resivore, replaced it, a year later same thing started up again, was a bad thermostat gasket. I think if your oil and watwr are ok then toss a bars in it and see what happens.

 

just for the record when my head gasket went the only way i knew was because my oil level was way up and i was out of coolant... you couldnt tell that there water in the oil it was the same color and everything just a little thinner

 

If by bars you mean that stop leak stuff I'd stay far away from any Stop Leak. It's a bad idea and cloggs up a lot of stuff.

 

thanks for the advise, I opened the Radiator today and it seemed a little chunky but I showed it to the "car guy" around work and he said that it was nothing to worry about. maybe I am just being paranoid because I got a good deal on it.

how much fluid should be in the reserve area when the truck is cold? should it be completely empty when the truck is hot?

 

Check around the therm housing, the weep hole on the bottom of the water pump,the heater hose connections and the radiator for a pin hole. If the leak is very small sometimes it will evaporate before you can actually see a leak on the ground. And last but not least, the heater core. Usually you'll smell that inside the truck though.

 

It should be around the min mark when cold or slightly over. It expands when it gets hot so after it warms up there should be more in there not less.

 

well then, I guess it has to be low since it was empty when I got to work and the truck was at running temp.

 

In theory... it should look like a chocolate milkshake type liquid. Not the easiest to see... but if you know what to look for you will recognize it.

Cartman

 

A little chunky? Maybe you should think about flushing the system out and replacing the T-stat, (with a good brand or oem)., before winter. This will put your mind at ease also. :-) And BTW, if the system is low and nothing is in the reservoir, it can emit the smell of anti freeze. Actually it does that anyway.More so if the system is low however. More heat , more pressure you know.