This morning the truck spewed some coolant out of the overflow tube after running maybe 5-7 minutes. By the time I noticed it and looked under the hood the coolant level in the overfull tank was at the same level it always is (when I parked I noticed it dripping down the tire). The level in the overflow tank is slightly above the "Add" line when cool and slightly over the Full line when hot. The truck did not run at any abnormal temp, the needle was in the same position that it always is. At lunch I went out and checked on it, the actual radiator is filled all the way to the top and the overflow tank is still pretty much at the same level so I guess not that much fluid came out. I started the truck and let it run for a few minutes and the overflow tank pretty much just stayed at the same level, nothing leaked this time around.

Anyway I was just wondering if this is something to worry about? Does this just happen sometimes?

 

It might be a sign of air in the system which is nothing to worry about. It might also be a sign of a blown head gasket, which is something to worry about.

Try running the engine with the radiator cap off for about half and hour to give the thermostat a chance to cycle several times, and sniff (carefully) over the filler to detect the tell-tale scent of combustion gases. If you smell 'em, it's a problem that you'll want to fix before it eats more parts.

 

Cool thanks for the info, I was actually thinking it could be air in the system, the radiator was recently replaced and my heat doesn't work all that well, I was going to do that burping procedure, just never got around to it yet.

I'll try the other test too, hopefully that is not the issue though!

 

Don't bother with the other test. If you never burped it, that was your problem. That kind of info is nice to know in the first post.

 

Here's what ya do: Head east on Lake Mead Blvd. until you're about four/five miles out of town. There's a road on the right, after Pabco Road, that has a kiosk and a long line of cable guard. Head out there until you find a good spot to get your right front so high that your filler is obviously above the top of your top radiator hose. The easy way to find the first available spot is to look for where my tire tracks have torn up the berm.

Once there, burp your system.

If you need a hand, PM me. I'll show you the spot and hang out with you while you wait for the thermostat to cycle.

EDIT: The spot I described is ahead of where my truck's parked in my sig.

 

Hah nice! It's cool having someone that knows the area. Maybe I'll take a drive this weekend, I'm in the northwest part of town so that is a good drive out that way for me.

I was going to just do this in my driveway using a vehicle ramp, just drive the passenger side up on the ramp, do you think that isn't high enough?

 

It wasn't even close to high enough for my truck. You need to make the bottom of the filler the highest point in the system, above the top of the upper radiator hose, to get a really good burp that gets all of the air out of the upper radiator hose. The rub then is that at that angle you've created a condition that often leads to an air pocket in the heater core due to its location and orientation.

I've been pondering how I might outsmart that system without modifying it. It's one of my projects for my upcoming downtime, after we've moved out of this "resort living" compartment where I can't work on my truck. If anything good comes of it I'll document it here on the site somewhere.

 

Ok I think I understand now, thanks for explaining the reason behind getting the passenger side so high

 

you could put a permanent T like this (the one with the cap) in the high-side heater hose to act as a burp valve. open the cap and fill it completely up and let it burp out

 

I've been thinking of doing something like that, perhaps one in each heater hose with shut-off valves between them and the water pump to make heater core flushing simpler. With that setup and a low pressure fluid pump it should be a simple matter to flush and burp the heater core without any additional hoop jumping. Not that the setup wouldn't be its own bit of hoop jumping...