Help.....Coolant issuses

[frdtrckmnrich]

Alright here is the new issue.
As some of you may know i just put headgaskets and studs in my motor. Everything has been going great until recently. Every once in awhile it will overfill the coolant bottle. I thought maybe the radiator cap was bad so i replaced it. The engine never overheats, but it does get warmed up. Ideas??????????????

The truck is an 85 f350 6.9 with a banks turbo.

 

[Diesel JD]

You mean boil over the coolant overflow or the level will rise some? First thing...make sure all your air is burped out of the coolant system before you panic. Second thing, your bottle has a min/max level on it...make sure the coolant is in that range. I used to worry a bunch about this but I decided that if there is visible coolant in the overflow and it doesn't boil over or use coolant, I'm happy. Some folks have had a hard time with getting studs to seat right. Some folks on the Olds Diesel forum blame ARP for some of their problems, Zigg had a protruding precup causing bubbles in the coolant etc. You weren't the guy that had coolant leaks because yor torque wrench was out of specs were you?

 

[RLDSL]

Assuming all the parts are good ( rad, fan clutch, water pump, etc ), your antifreeze mix may be a bit thin allowing it to boil a bit too soon.
Try one of those little antifreeze testers , the little bulb goody with the floating balls, and see if the mix is correct.

-------Robert

 

[frdtrckmnrich]

Actually i was the one with the bad torque wrench. I have redone it with a known good wrench and put approximately 1500 miles on it. It overfilled the bottle once before (since i did the gaskets this last time). That's when i replaced the cap. I also changed the hose from the radiator to the bottle to make sure it was in the coolant. Since then i have had no problems until yesterday when i was running some errands around town. The boost has been kept to less then 10lbs.

 

[frdtrckmnrich]

It is not actually boiling over. It will bubble in the overflow bottle within 1 minute of starting it up in the morning.

 

[towcat]

It is not actually boiling over. It will bubble in the overflow bottle within 1 minute of starting it up in the morning.

that is not a good sign.
do you have one of those testers with the dye to check for presence of combustion gasses in your cooling system?

 

[frdtrckmnrich]

No i do not. I have been thinking that's what i should check next. But i really want to know why it keeps doing this.

 

[icanfixall]

If I'm following you correctly you state that you used a bad torque wrench and didn't get the correct torque value on the studs. I didn't see how you figured this out but.... If all you did was retorque the heads then its my feeling that your head gaskets were damaged with the lower torque reached with a bad wrench. Think of it this way. The compression starts cutting a path even though its microscopic in size. Now after some time the damage gets worse. This may all be not correct but thats how I see it from this side of the screen. I hope you have something else to post like my feeling are not what going on. Pulling heads is no simple job...

 

[frdtrckmnrich]

Since finding that the torque wrench was bad. I did yet another head and block inspection along with new gaskets. Using a certified torque wrench. Now i am back to this problem again.

 

[tonkadoctor]

You need to run 2 tests on this engine before throwing parts at it.

1. Cylinder leakdown test
2. Cooling system pressure test

If you have a blown gasket, cracked head, block or whatever.... These 2 tests performed correctly, (by somebody that knows how to properly do it, read the results and pinpoint the location), will tell you where the problem is. It's time to get dirty and break out the diagnostic tools.

Until you do this, the best anybody here can give you is a WAG... ..... Wild @$$ Guess.

 

[jimraelee]

You need to run 2 tests on this engine before throwing parts at it.

1. Cylinder leakdown test
2. Cooling system pressure test

If you have a blown gasket, cracked head, block or whatever.... These 2 tests performed correctly, (by somebody that knows how to properly do it, read the results and pinpoint the location), will tell you where the problem is. It's time to get dirty and break out the diagnostic tools.

Until you do this, the best anybody here can give you is a WAG... ..... Wild @$$ Guess.

I agree

 

[icanfixall]

Well that changing the gaskets takes care of what I thought the problem could have been. Now I'm really scratching my head. Nothing comes up at this time. I'll be looking for answers though.

 

[frdtrckmnrich]

I appreciate your help! I will be doing those tests this next week.