burning coolant.....need help

[Ryda85]

ok heres whats happening and the symptoms i have

-everytime i get on it and get out i smell burning coolant.
-dont see any leaks
-upper hose feels really hot
-fan is always on from the second i start the truck...never used to do this
-when i take the cap off the upper ic the water boils out and goes all over....but after it all spills out ( a few ozs) i stick my finger in the ic and its nice and cold water in there.



any ideas?

 

[Ryda85]

Re: burning coolant.....need help

anyone?

 

[Black Knight]

Re: burning coolant.....need help

Is your thermostat new or old? Could possiblely be stuck. What is the condition of your water pump?

Depending on your thermostat temp, the upper hose could have 160* to 195* temps in it, so yeah it will be hot.

 

[Ryda85]

Re: burning coolant.....need help

brand new 160 thermo....worked fine after i put it in a few months ago...now this

 

[midnightbluS10]

Re: burning coolant.....need help

-when i take the cap off the upper ic the water boils out and goes all over....but after it all spills out ( a few ozs) i stick my finger in the ic and its nice and cold water in there.

The intercooler is on a completely different system so this is unrelated to burning coolant.

 

[Ryda85]

Re: burning coolant.....need help

The intercooler is on a completely different system so this is unrelated to burning coolant.

i know...im just listing all the smptoms

 

[Luke]

Re: burning coolant.....need help

You need to pressure test the cooling system and check for external leaks. Pray you find one, and its not something internal

 

[TurboJunk]

Re: burning coolant.....need help

Maybe theres a leak that drips onto the exhaust when you drive, thats why its not visble because it burns off. it maybe extremely small, and only drip under pressure. Try looking at the gauge sensor in the head or the plug on the passenger side. (just a thought maybe worthless but its a start)

 

[pinellas50]

Re: burning coolant.....need help

You need to pressure test the cooling system and check for external leaks. Pray you find one, and its not something internal

Yup. Or is the coolant pumping out into your overflow bottle at all?

And the coolant smell is not IN the truck....ie blown heater core?

 

[SY2932]

Re: burning coolant.....need help

Rule out the thermostat and radiator cap first. My daily driver had a bad cap that wasn't allowing the pressure to escape to the overflow. That causes BIG pressure in the cooling system. First time I saw the upper radiator hose, I thought that it was going to burst.

 

[pinellas50]

Re: burning coolant.....need help

Rad cap is one of the places I was gonna go. But the opposite side of that. One that won't hold pressure and allows the coolant to be pumped into the overflow until it, uh, overflows. A bad HG could cause that same symptom too.

 

[wildphil]

Re: burning coolant.....need help

Check your exhaust gasses, If it is burning coolant you should be able to smell it. At least every time I had one that had a bad head gasket or cracked head you could smell the coolant in the exhaust fumes easily. I hope you are lucky and it is just leaking somewere.

 

[Ryda85]

Re: burning coolant.....need help

coolant resivoir is also really dirty inside

 

[Loeryder]

Re: burning coolant.....need help

Do you have the upper ic connected to the overflow bottle?
If not and the IC is burping coolant it will be burping right onto the DP.

With a healthy IC system it should never get hot enough to expand and overflow so I always cap that one off.

 

[motorhead]

Re: burning coolant.....need help

Hows the heat feel? if there is no heat you may not be circulating. head gasket or cracked head can be inducing air into the system. whats the temp running at?

can you see small air bubbles purculating when you look into the rad? sniff the rad. coolant. Does it have a nasty burnt smell or do you just smell it from the outside of the engine?

 

[nallj92]

Re: burning coolant.....need help

mine did that when i popped the head gasket, coolant was dirty, got super hot, etc.
mine didnt smell or smoke tho, it had a samll leak, just enought to loose coolant and loss of power