Confuseing Coolent Issue Need Help Asap

[chevylobo]

resion i say asap is i havea family membe rin hosptail in vermont and i need to get up there asap but i dont wanna damage truck

 

ok yesterday i get in truck startdown highway interstate driveing i get hour or so from house my temp gaudge gose to red so i pull into rest area let truck cool .

 

i pop rad cap its empty my reseve tank still has some in it but not much and its brown and stinks badly . so i let it cool i fill with water let run with cap off for like 10 mins level drops some i refill watch it its fine .

 

 

i drive back home no leaks and shes still full this morning and this after noon what the hell is going on lol?

 

is there anything i should check ?some one told me sounds like bad water pump or lower hose but i couldent find any drips or leaks could it be a bad cap as my cap was a pain to get back on rad when i went to put it back on? also upper hose is new so i checked those connections.

 

also as you guys knowa shop a whileago put wrong coolent in truck they flushed and refilled but could it be something from that?

[Zembonez]

I think the overheating is your best clue. If the truck got really hot maybe it boiled the coolant out the overflow. Once cooled, it would suck the reservoir dry. Overheating on the highway might be a stuck thermostat or sludged up radiator... Most everything I ever had heat up did it in city traffic.

 

Anybody else?

[minibike132]

I think the overheating is your best clue. If the truck got really hot maybe it boiled the coolant out the overflow. Once cooled, it would suck the reservoir dry. Overheating on the highway might be a stuck thermostat or sludged up radiator... Most everything I ever had heat up did it in city traffic.

 

Anybody else?

+1. Brown and stinkey equals sludge. If you can see it in the top of the radiator you can bet the bottom is packed and there is sludge everywhere.There is a bulliten somewhere for a pretty heavy duty flushing proceedure with prestone flush, the powder not the liquid (this stuff is way toxic and extremely corrosive to alluminum so I wouldn't suggest trying it at home).

[mcreyaufmiller]

You could have the IM gasket problem. The truck will burn off the coolant while running, and if not watched you can end up with an empty radaitor. The stinky stuff is the leftover after the boil off. I am not sure what to check, but if you flush the system first, and fill back up then if you run out of coolant, you may have a im gasket problem. My recomendation is that when you flush the coolant, replace with green coolant, it is not as corrosive as the orange stuff.