Just covering my bases here and making sure there is not a hidden problem I dont know about before I plan on buying a new radiator. I bought this truck a couple weeks ago. So far I have replaced ball joints and flushed rear end and transmission. I didnt touch the radiator as it is new and so is the coolant and hoses and clamps. When I picked up truck from mechanic I noticed coolant was low. The first thing I thought of with my paranoid self is head gasket issue. I took the truck home and when it cooled down I topped off coolant, left cap off (old cap) and ran truck until at operating temp. thinking maybe air in system. No bubbles, coolant circulates just fine. Shut truck off and replaced cap, went grab a few beers. Took truck to work this afternoon (71 miles) and let cool off. On the way I picked up another cap. I checked coolant and it was a little low, topped it off an put on new cap figuring on checking it when I come back to work tomorrow afternoon.

About an hour or so ago, I walk outside to smoke cigarette and notice puddle under front of truck. I pop hood to investigate. Coolant overflow hose (the one not connected to anything) is damp at end, not sure what this means. There is a fairly good sized puddle under truck, I did not spill that much when refilling rad. I also noticed this puddle the first night I took truck to work but figured on it being condensate from A/C. Far as I can tell no hoses are leaking nor where they connect to rad or engine. It is damp in lower shroud area, and I have a drip coming from around petcock area where the plastic crimps onto metal part of rad (what a stupid *** design). Everything else is dry except a little dampness in lower most part of lower shroud, and where it is dripping onto power steering return line. Coolant is also about 1/4 inch lower than where I topped it up to earlier. Is there anything I could be missing. Water pump area is dry and so are belts. Could a new radiator just be bad? No leaks from petcock at all, inside of drain is dry. Thanks for any help.

 

sounds like you got air in the system. If the puddle is under tha overflow hose and it's damp. More than likely it came from there.

 

I thought so to, but what confused me about it is that the window washer bottle the end of the hose lays against was dry. Maybe it overflowed and trapped in the lower shroud and just kept dripping from there. I will have to sit and watch it one day to see exact. I know for a fact it dosent do it right when the truck is shut off, in this case it wasnt until I filled it back up to the cold fill line. So, burp the system until this disappears? Maybe the cap was letting air suck in under pressure? What I saw coming off the end of the radiator wasnt a "leak" so much as a drip. Could likely be the scenario I wrote about above.

 

I'm hoping what i'm about to write isn't the thing happening to you but.....If you can't find any leaks what so ever.start the truck with the rad cap on and let it run up to operating temp.rev the motor and watch the overflow outlet tube, see if water is coming out from there while the motor is up there in the high rpm's.if so unfortunately you have a blown head gasket.it's blowing compression in to the cooling system them out your bottle(the path of least resistance).like i said i hope that this is not whats happening,but the same situation happened to me with a friends car and thats what it turned out to be.

 

I will check that out, but all the coolant I am losing is happening within minutes to an hour after I top off the radiator, while engine is cold. I found this out last night.

 

I just did what you suggested, no water out of the overflow when reving. I also parked when I got to work this afternoon and gave the truck a few good revs than popped the hood an checked, the overflow tube is bone dry. I did the same when I got home this morning before I checked your post and the same, bone dry. I did realize a small leak under truck after parking it and the drip was coming from the same place on the rad, but on a much smaller scale than last night. I will take truck to a radiator shop and have them to check it out.

 

my truck did the same thing this winter its just leaks ever so slightly from the pinch
seam by the drain petcock. It barley drips and very rarely leaves a puddle but
sometimes the coolant is down and there will be a few dribbles coming from this
area so Im gonna guess faulty rad.

 

Okay guys, searching around a bit I found this thread and decided to bring it back from the trenches. Regarding the leaking radiator..............yeah, it let go on me the last week. I never got around to replacing it, as it never did leak bad enough for me to change it. Once a week or so I would top it off, it would leak maybe 1/4 of a gallon of fluid every 2 weeks. The one night last week, I was at work, leaving the office to check on one of my projects, and I noticed that leaving the parking lot and getting on the road, the temp guage kept climbing. I turned around and made it back to the office, the needle never reached the red, or even the line before, no check guages light, dings nothing. So I wouldnt say overheat, but way hotter than it normally gets. Back at the shop I opened the hood and noticed that the top radiator hose was cold, as was the top part of the radiator. The only spot on the radiator that was hot was the lower right hand corner. The next morning I ran to the auto parts store (in company truck) and picked up a new rad, thermostat, and cap.


Which brings me to the reason I am posting this. When I took the recovery tank off, the small diameter hose the runs from the back of it and where it connects had some sort of sludge on it, looks like oil emulsification, it was real light, I also found the same light film of the same substance on the thermostat when I changed it. It was by no means caked on, just real light. I beleive that this truck either has had a head gasket issue, and this may be the leftover residue, or currently has the beginnings of a head gasket failure. I just wanted to see what you guys thought. The coolant always did have a sort of sheen on top of it, I also did not find this sludge anywhere else, not even in the old radiator. I have not water in the oil, nor does the exhaust smell like anti freeze, I smelled the exhaust on start up of my bosses 4.7 liter, a co workers 3.7 liter, and my wifes 4.6 liter F150 and they all smell the same as mine. No water from the exhaust, only a drip or 3 on startup, nothing excessive and no white smoke. The fresh coolant doesnt have a sheen and is still the same clear color it was when I put it in (Zerex G-05) a week ago.

A bit about the truck- Its a 2002 Ram 1500, 4.7 liter, I bought almost a year ago with 111,000 miles on it. It currently has 134,000 miles on it. When I bought it I replaced trans, oil, and gear lube which was all a waste as it was already clean, fresh fluid and new transmission filters. Its obvious to me that the truck was taken care of by its previous owner. It has ran perfectly for me the past year that I have owned it, I have also taken a few long trips in it as well. I just would like to know you guys thoughts on this mayonaise substance. I will in the next couple weeks buy a sniffer dye or whatever the hell it is to find out for sure unless something else manifests itself. Truck runs fine now, no overheating, runs just like it did before. Heater blows luke warm on drivers side and hot as hades on the passenger side like always. Ideas?


Also, the thermostat I took out appeared to be new. The radiator was new when I bought the truck so I will hazard a guess that they were replaced around the same time.

 

My wifes 2002 Ram 1500 Reg Cab, 4.7 is doing the exact same thing. I have replaced the thermostat, radiator cap, flushed and replaced all of the radiator fluid. And yet every night when she parks it in the garage, it leaves a puddle about 6 to 10 inches in diameter of antifreeze. It appears to be coming from the black overflow tube that runs down the side of the radiator. The radiator doesn't have any blowback on rev ups, no bubbles at normal operating temp, and yet the problem of putting in the 20 dollar per gallon antifreeze still exists....My mechanic pulled the intake and said they saw a little bit of antifreeze sitting on top of the block. But that could be anything from blow back to a leaking gasket. So how does one check for a leaking head gasket? Pressure test each cylinder? Labor cost!! YIKES! Suggestions please...

 

Have you checked your water pump?