Diesel JD
Full Access Member
Hey guys,
I thought I had blown up the 86 this afternoon but it may live yet. I was heaving coolant loss and it was starting to get hot so I was wondering what the hell was going on. I started running the heater and it was ice cold so I figured it must be running low on coolant and the gauge is just reading hot air in the cylinder head. By now I'm also smelling coolant. Anyway, I decide I'd better not push my luck cause the gauge is getting hotter and hotter. I see where the coolant has POURED out on the passenger side, so I'm thinking cracked block or blown head gasket. Anyway I also remembered Gary's experience with an overheat caused by a bad freeze plug, and I see the block heater/plug has been pushed out and is down there hanging by the cord. I know this wasn't good for it but I think I didn't really get her that hot due to catching it early and because it was so cold here. So what does everyone think? Just replace the block heater and check to make sure the block didn't crack in that area, maybe check the other freeze plugs? Any opinions on if I should replace the block heater or just put a freeze plug there? Also, I recall from Gary's incident that the freeze plugs need to be factory and supposedly they should be installed with the Ford tool? Any ideas what could have caused it to pop? It seems obvious it froze but it was only in the 20s here and I have been using CAT ELC in there, so I don't know why it would freeze unless someone topped the system off with water without my knowledge or permission unless CAT had a bad batch of ELC or something of that nature.
I thought I had blown up the 86 this afternoon but it may live yet. I was heaving coolant loss and it was starting to get hot so I was wondering what the hell was going on. I started running the heater and it was ice cold so I figured it must be running low on coolant and the gauge is just reading hot air in the cylinder head. By now I'm also smelling coolant. Anyway, I decide I'd better not push my luck cause the gauge is getting hotter and hotter. I see where the coolant has POURED out on the passenger side, so I'm thinking cracked block or blown head gasket. Anyway I also remembered Gary's experience with an overheat caused by a bad freeze plug, and I see the block heater/plug has been pushed out and is down there hanging by the cord. I know this wasn't good for it but I think I didn't really get her that hot due to catching it early and because it was so cold here. So what does everyone think? Just replace the block heater and check to make sure the block didn't crack in that area, maybe check the other freeze plugs? Any opinions on if I should replace the block heater or just put a freeze plug there? Also, I recall from Gary's incident that the freeze plugs need to be factory and supposedly they should be installed with the Ford tool? Any ideas what could have caused it to pop? It seems obvious it froze but it was only in the 20s here and I have been using CAT ELC in there, so I don't know why it would freeze unless someone topped the system off with water without my knowledge or permission unless CAT had a bad batch of ELC or something of that nature.