I have had this problem for awhile now. It all started when i had my system flushed at a local oil change place. I will loose all my heat, the temp guage will slowly go up then spike at hot, then drop to normal after spraying a crap load of coolant out the resevoir. All this happens and i have no heat. I have had my mechanic look at it and he had the radiator steam cleaned, flushed system about 3 times since then and he still can't figure out whats going on. when this happens i loose heat, guage goes up/down, coolant light comes on followed by CE light and loss of power. I have no idea what it is. It doesn't happen all them time.

Oh yeah i had ford look at it and they determined it was the water pump. I had that replaced and it still does it.

 

I hate to even mention this after youve done all that,but have you had your thermostat replaced,maybe its openin to late?dont know much about that,so you think it over lol

 

Check your thermostat, coolant sensor and beleive it or not your radiator cap / overflow tank cap. If this is building to much pressure you will have overheating problems.

What this really sounds to me is that you have air pockets in the cavities of the motor. Where is the coolant coming from when it spews out?

 

I would check to see if you have air pockets. I have a beater Chevy ( aren't they all ) that I hunt with and had a similar problem. Turned out it was very low on water.

 

I've gone thru 5 tstats since this has happened. I really doubt all of them beeing bad. When waterpump was changed tstat was also. As for pockets, everytime i have it serviced? It has gone weeks without problems then all of a sudden it wil happen. It spews out the resevoir cap. I've replaced that twice also to no avail.

Today i went to drop it off and they couldn't take it till tuesday. So i will drop it off then. while i was driving it there today i had no heat. it wasn't till i drove it around after work today that i had heat and NO problems.

 

Yes, check the thermostat. To find it, find the upper rad hose, and Follow it to it's end. There will be two bolts. Remove those bolts. The thermostat will be stuck inside the housing there, the piece you took off. Make sure it's clean, and the spring can be moved by hand. If not, Get a replacement. Then, clean off both the housing and the place where the housing connects with either a wire wheel, or an abrasive disk. They work best. After all this is done, take off the hose right behind that (cant remember the specific name, sorry) and Fill up the rad. Coolant will start to flow out of the hose, a good thing. Then, QUICKLY put the hose back on. This flushes out any air in the lines. Then, leave the rad cap open, until the fluid 'burps'. Thats' all I can tell ya!That should fix the problem!

 

I've done that numerous times to no avail. my mechanic looked at it, flushed the system when he changed the tstat and it did it in front of him. He checked everything there is to check. He thinks its a bad headgasket. Another mechanic said the same thing. Overheating but no heat in truck has to be a bad headgasket or cracked head. I don't know what to think or believe anymore.

 

I just solved my coolant spraying problem by replacing
the coolant/overflow cap which looked fine but was jammed.

At the dealers overpriced rate of $8. Not too bad a fix.

My overflow was causing overheating, thermostat failure, plug fouling...

I'm still troubleshooting... but the spraying from a non-op
$8 cap that started the trouble ball rolling...

If you haven't looked at the cap... try that...

If you already have... nevermind...

We don't use heat where I live... But we do
drive trucks

 

I might just get a new cap again. I had replaced it once. I might have to check my plugs too. I haven't even thought about them fouling.

KNOCKONWOOD!

 

take it to the shop or the dealer and while it is running ask them to put an exhaust analyzer probe into the overflow tank. if the get a reading you have a bad head gasket. it's a very easy test and should only take minutes as long as the truck is warm.

on the good side what you are describing is a very common t-stat problem because of your description of what the guage is doing. if it was/is the head gasket it would heppen all the time.

are you buying the stats from the same place? it could be a bad lot of them. are you sure the stat is not in backwards?

 

KNOCKONWOOD


I first replaced the tstat with the stock motorcraft one. It was fine for about 10 minutes. Then i replaced that one with a stant mustang tstat. That one worked for about 1 month. I left that one in there until i replaced it with another motorcraft one. That one worked ok until i had the worst overflow. Ford replaced the tstat and waterpump. I have only had one problem since then (knockonwood) I might just order a new cap and try it. The cap is fairly new, i bought it in november with the first tstat.

When ford had my truck the service writer said that the pump should be the fix. If not it might be the headgasket. If thats the case why didn't they just look into it then? Why not eliminate all possibilities and make more money off me?

 

With the symptons you describe it's most likely combustion getting into the cooling system from a leaking cyl. head gasket or a crack in the head its self. In addition to the exhaust gas analyzer test(as mentioned) there is a dye test you can have done to determine if combustion is present in the cooling system.

 

I have read your description three times and the first line seems to be the most telling. The problem started after a coling system service. I could see where an overzelous cooling system cleaning could aggravate a minor head gasket problem. If they used a corrosive flush and then did not get it all out it might have eaten through the gasket. Only way to lose the heater is to not have coolant flowing through the heater core. maybe instead of a head gasket or cracked head there is some sort of blockage happening. I could see something maybe floating loose inside the head and plugging up the passages. the coolant trapped inside the haed would overheat and cause the pressure and temp gauge problem. If the blockage was in the area where the heater hoses were it would also explain the loss of heater. I would be really intrested in finding out what eventually fixes this one. Please lets us know!!

 

KNOCKONWOOD

Well when i had my mechanic look at it in february to do some work i also had him replace the tstat again. He said it wasn't the tstat that it was something else. So i pick it up and what do you know. It happens again. This time beeing the worst. It happened near his shop so I was able to get it to him. I told him what happened he said he would check it out in the morning. He calls me and says that it has to be the head gasket. Everything that is going on points to it. He says he wont do the work, that its to much of a pita. So i take it to ford. Tell them the situation. The guy calls me 2 days later and says 3 techs are saying bad waterpump. So i say fix. They do, the techy drives it home and says nothing happened. So i pick it up, it kind happened but not really. A week goes by. I goto the post office and what do you know it happens again. This time it sits in the driveway for about 2 weeks.(i had the flu) Take it to ford and tell the guy what happened. He couldn't take my truck cause of a 8 day backup. I was like WTF. He was telling me it could be a cracked head or blown gasket. I said whatever and left. And I haven't had a problems since. It has ran fine eversince.

 

I'm still having this problem with mine except it ends up
fouling plug 6 over and over....

So let me get this right 97f150f/s, you replaced the water pump
twice? Once from your guy and the second time from the
dealer? and Now it's not spraying?

Where was your coolant landing?

Mine is landing on the air cleaner housing, upper right
radiator clamp, overfill bucket and fuse box... Does this
sound familiar?