I work with a guy who has a 98 F-1, 4.6/auto 2wd with about 210,000 on it.
Truck is in good shape and has never been abused heavily. Problem is, he's on his 6th radiator, and he's not sure why, and the mechanics he has used have not been able to penpoint the problem. I dont have any detailed info, Ill ask him tomorrow at work, but what are some possible causes to this? He said that one mechanic commented on some electrical problem...any possible connection? Could it be the brand of radiator; as far as I know, he's used factory replacements.

Thanks guys!!

 

6th radiator because of what? leaking? clogged? cracked?

 

Apparently because of corrosion caused by electrolysis of the radiator.

 

That's probably it. A multimeter will show this quickly and easily. He probably has a bad engine ground. We see this with muscle cars all the time, folks are always sticking cheap aluminum racing radiators in old engine bays and with a bad (often no) engine ground the radiator is leaking a few months later.

 

yea, that sounds right....electrolites because of a bad ground.
How many points on these trucks do we need to check for ground? The only one I know of is off the starter

 

Electrolysis will also occur because of old coolant. I don't think it's as big of a factor with extended life coolant but for sure with green coolant. Not saying that's your friend's problem but it is a good reason to change your coolant every couple of years. Has he went through any heater cores also?

 

Right !! Flush every two years - 233,000 miles on the heater core and radiator. Never checked it with a meter , how is that done? You stick the positive lead right in the coolant and find a ground somewhere? I don't know how else you could test

 

Yup, pull the cap and measure voltage between the coolant and the battery's negative terminal.

 

Huh , okay thanks for the info

 

Anyone know what the allowable voltage is? A guy at worked replaced a heater core in a 2001 F150 last year and the new core came with a sheet of paper describing how to check the voltage and it had a spec but I forget what it was. It may have been anything below 0.1v was ok but I'm not sure.

Same guy checked the voltage in his 98 F150 at the same time and it was above spec. He didn't have time to change the coolant right away so he ran a ground wire from one of the heater core tubes to the battery ground and that dropped the voltage in the coolant. Since then he's changed his coolant and removed the wire.

 

My old F150 went through a few radiator's in it's time. Oem tanks were epoxy into the row's and started leaking around the epoxy. Replaced it with a new radiator that had seal's around the tanks and where crimped on. Finally got a radiator that had metal tank's solder on to the row's... they all started to leak at some time.

I just pull the old radiator and the folks at autozone would give me a new radiator free of charge due to the guarantee and a new starter for my Falcon too cause she was eating them yearly. I notice on their computer my return rate was like 75% The other 25 must of been the antifreeze I needed. Best bang for the buck was Bart's stop leak

Then I started buying my parts at Napa and no more problems

 

I second that. TSB#06-21-19

 

I realized today that my truck doesn't have a radiator cap on top of the radiator, it's on top of the overflow tank. You may be able to measure voltage between the core and the battery, but since the core is grounded this may not be accurate.

There should be no voltage through the radiator. Electricity always follows the path of least resistance and that should be the ground straps. If electricity chooses to flow through radiator fluid, oxidized aluminum, and painted steel you need to give it a better path.