98F150
170,000 miles

I am currently driving from Washington DC to Las Vegas. While climbing the mountains in West Virginia, the truck overheated. After cool down, dumped some anti-freeze in and drove on to Ohio without issue. The next morning, truck began to overheat. Dumped more coolant in and drove 6 hours without overheating. That evening,began to overheat. The next morning, a new thermostat was installed. Drove 12 hours including through the Rockies before engine overheated in Utah. Dumped more coolant in and drove for two hours. Here are the symptoms.

-no visible leak
-new thermostat
-no milky oil
-no wet or smokey tailpipe
-engine has not missed
-engine does not ride rough
-no heat when heat is turned on.
-no smell of exhaust or coolant in engine or passenger compartment.
-Dumped a gallon of coolant in each time I refilled.

Where is the coolant going and why doesn't the heat work? Please help, so I can complete my trip.

Thanks,
John

 

check the floor on the passenger side. Might be you blew the heater core. Keep the overflow full so you dont overheat

 

You may not get white smoke, or a miss, or milky oil with blown head gasket. But you usually will get a large air bubble in the cooling system that can prevent the coolant from passing through the heater core and allowing any heat to be generated through the heat system. Hate to say it but I would bet you have a blown head gasket. Is the cooling system over pressurizing? When you remove the degas bottle cap is there excessive pressure. Stop and have a hydrocarbon test performed at a dealer or reputable garage. If hydro carbons are present its a blown head gasket. Also remember to add a mix of 50/50 water and coolant not just coolant. Coolant alone is not efficient and can cause cooling problems. Good luck.

 

Replace your pressure cap. If this cap is not maintaining the correct pressure the coolant will disappear on a trip. Is your overflow bottle empty when it overheats. If it is, that may not be the problem.

 

Heater core, radiator cap, blown head gasket etc are all symptoms like you describe. You need to let a shop look at it before you do engine damage.

 

Thanks for the responses. I forgot to add that also replaced the cap and had a pressure test that checked out.. There does seem to be a lot of pressure when i remove the cap. For the amount of coolant i seem to be losing i just thought that the engine might miss or run rough if it was a head gasket. I guess im just hoping its not the gasket. Anyone have luck with the seals that you dump in yhe radiator?

 

Usually the stuff you dump in the radiator only succeeds in ruining the radiator, and that's from personal expirence.

 

That, and the engine block.

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