the other day my thermostat stuck closed
steamed out on the side of the road
i was only a few miles from home so i had my wife bring some h2o
big green sticky mess all over the engine compartment
yesterday i took out the t-stat, only 3 years old and even USA made
always used 195*
when i bought that one i bought 2 so i had one for a spare
decided 3 years was not long enough life so i decided not to use the other new one, instead opting for an almost new still shiny stant 180 i had
after i put it in seemed like i had a radiator leak
out with that radiator
i swear that thing weighs 50 lbs. empty
cleaned the whole thing off real good set it up in the 90* sunlight and plugged the hose ends and filled it with water
never did leak a drop , and the sun dried it all out so once again i lifeted in the heavy thing
ran the truck for about 40 minutes varying the idle,never topped 180
bought a new cap too
now i can drain out the h2o and refill with the proper coolant
if your temp gauge always runs in the same spot and even on a hot day you notice its 10 degrees warmer on the gauge, investigate
i was pushing pretty hard in some steep hills
stopped about 20 miles before the steamout, was no hissing or steaming there, only the extra 10 on the gauge
but after that i got stuck behind a very large farm tractor taking up the lane and the shoulder going about 20 mph
time i got past him the temp had gone past 220 and speed would not bring it down
now the rest of the story
truck was inside all winter front clip off while i was redoing the floor, core support and a bunch of other work
finally got things back together where i could start it up again and now this
truck suffered a semi-serious setback yesterday, im sure related to the stuck closed thermostat i suffered on the way back from your house last year
after replacing it seemed like everything was ok
truck was apart all winter and just last week i repaired the end of my oil dipsick and the oil was still a nice new color and texture
i had gotten a new sending unit for oil pressure but when i started my truck up wed nite it did not work, i have setup boith gage and light and the light did work.anyways let the truck warm up to operating temp and sounded and idled good
yesterday seemed very nice, a little wind and so i backed out of the garage and Terry helped me with bleeding my brakes
as i had installed a new mc,wheel cylinder and rubber lines up front
after lunch i went to the parts store to see about the sending unit and a possible warranty return as it had been a few months and its box went in the woodstove.the store owner told me if i brought it in he would test it, by reading the ohms
under pressure. i was attemting to do this underneath the truck with it running when i noticed a small oil drip but it was milky grey, not the new color of a week ago when i last checked it. sure enough when i pulled the dipstick the water and oil mix was readily observed
so i spent last evening tearing down the top end, removing both heads
the heads looked very good and so did the cylinders, nothing seemed very off in either
so this morning
go directly to the parts store,do not pass go and do not collect but likely spend $200
Terry said better here in the yard than someplace in the middle of the USA where you cant do much about it
dont know why the gaskets did not blow when the t-stat stuck but i think they were severely compromised and it took just a bit to kill it. not sure which side as they did not come off whole and it was late and i was pretty tired
sure wish i had known this before reassembling the front clip as its a whole lot easier to remove them standing beside rather than leaning over the fenders
slickstock or bust
