coolant level in radiator,

[Andy D]

I wanted to test the coolant . I opened the radiator and pushed the tube way into the side tank. I had to use a 3 foot hose to siphon up a sample to test, The expansion tank was about a pint low. I am just easing the truck around town because the clutch and rear u joint are toast. But the gauge doesnt run hot, and I'm not smelling antifreeze. Will I be adding more coolant when it burps ?

 

[superds]

I recommend you properly purge your cooling system, then you won't have to worry about adding more coolant later. Until it's purged you'll have to keep adding more, trouble is without actually purging it you won't know if there's more to be added.

If you're continually adding coolant, look around for signs of head gasket failure, usually brown milky gunk on your dipstick or white smoke coming out the tailpipe.

 

[adsm08]

For starters, if you have a lot of air in the system you can't trust the gauge. The sensor is not meant to read air temp, it is meant to read water temp, so if your coolant is low and the sensor is not submerged it will report a significantly lower temp than what actually exists. That is why Ford went to cylinder head temp and moved away from coolant temp.

Second thing, easiest way to purge all the air out is to remove heater hose at the heater core and shove a funnel in it. Then add coolant to the funnel until it starts running out the open end of the heater core. Put it back together and top off the rad. Overfill the bottle just a hair and drive, you will be purged.

The heater core is the highest point, so doing it that way pushes all the air out.

 

[Andy D]

Thank you guys, no obvious leaks smells or milk shakes. The coolant looks pretty good and floats 4 balls in my tester. I'm used to checking fluids, so I be watching it. My Grand Wag regularly ran a 1/2 gallon low. Once the weather gets too cold to paint the house. I'll rig my tent garage and turn to on the truck's drive line issues. It is not my ideal truck, but I generally like it considering Ive only got about 800$ into it so far. Its a 126k mile Ford , so my expectations are low.

I am surprised that the clutch works at all. If driven normally it won't go, because the clutch slips so badly. However, if you dump the clutch it will stall. Just a touch of gas as the pedal tops out. Rinse and repeat a few times and you are at normal driving speed. Performance declines as the clutch get hot.