Puking with 250 tune?

[sjl2725]

I don't even know where to begin with this. I might have 2 different issues and I have never been really concerned about puking coolant because I only run the 250 tune and am not real hard on the truck... Didn't think I was a candidate for a puking truck.

Here's the way it went down: We were running some errands, hopped on the expressway and got up to 60/65 and the truck started vibrating like it had a tire out of balance BADLY and it got worse within a couple of minutes. Pulled over, left the truck run and did a walk-around didn't see anything weird but smelled something like burning electrical. Nothing burning, got back in the truck, back up to 65 mph and the wobble was gone. Mind you, this wobble was so bad it was shaking the center console... also note, I was only pulled over for about 2 minutes.

When we arrived at our destination , I saw some spatter in the wheel-wells and along the side of the doors- We had passed a guy working on a bobcat along a dirt road and swerved to miss a puddle (on a dry dirt) and chalked the spatter up to his possible hydraulic fluid leak.

a couple of days pass. No highway driving. Then yesterday, I was pulling my trailer down the expressway (it only weighs out at 4000 lbs) and the wobble came back. Pulled off the road. Checked out the steering linkage etc, smelled the electrical smell again. 2-5 minutes truck still running, hopped back in and re-entered the hiway. No f-ing wobble.

Looked at the sides of the truck today after church and there was way more spatter and an obvious smell of coolant. Looked at the skid plate thingy underneath and there was a white ring around the square opening the the bottom. Also, white crust around the bottle opening. It DID release pressure when I opened it, so it has a decent seal.

Is my wobble/shimmy related at all to puking? Something off balance in the motor? Or is it a broken belt in a tire that gets out out of whack occasionally? (I run toyo MT 37's)

Is it possible that the truck has a bad head gasket after only running the 250 for less than 10k miles? gingerly, I might add?

Thoughts?

If you read this far, thanks for your attention!!!!

[pyro2nite]

At first I would say you have two differant sitituations. The wobble is something that has been written about. The leaking if it is coolant could be comming from several sources. EGR, hose, radiator etc. I have learned to always look for the lest expensive cause and work up. Also make sure it is really coolant.

[skipnay]

^ are you saying that he is having the death wobble?

[sjl2725]

Death Wobble??? I'll have to search that one... But yeah, I assume it would have increased if I hadn't pulled over. What causes that? I drove the same truck, same set up from SW Missouri to Central Pennsylvania and back last summer and didn't experience anything remotely close.

[sjl2725]

So what might be the best way to find out what the spatter in my wheel wells and all over the sides of my truck might be? My oil needs changed, and the spatter isn't black, so I could probably rule that out.

Since there is crusty coolant underneath the truck, I need to assume that's what it is. How can I find out where it is coming from? It probably only leaks/pukes under load, and it would be dry by the time I got under the truck.

If its a HG, I'm going to be up the creek.

[Ipkyss]

If the truck is puking, There will be white, salt like substance on the bottom of the hood and the top of the motor. The wobble sounds like death wobble. Usually comes from warn parts or just bad adjustments.

[pyro2nite]

Originally Posted by skipnay

^ are you saying that he is having the death wobble?

From his discription.............yes

[sjl2725]

Yeah, its the death wobble. Not overly worried about it, just need to get it up on the jackstands and check some things out.

As far as the puking, since my truck is white, I couldn't see anything un the underside of the hood and there was not anything on the topside of the engine really, but down the side of the coolant bottle there were some stripes and on the hoses underneath the coolant there was some whte as well. Also as I mentioned before, there is a curved plate under the engine with a square hole in the middle. There was a white ring around that hole.

I took it out on the highway last night and floored it a few times. EGT's never get very high, maybe 1100, and I THOUGHT that the smoke had a light blue tint a couple of times, but it could have been the way the sun was hitting it. When I did a brake-stand, it was black as it should be. After my (almost) WOT runs, No fresh coolant on the bottle or under the hood. Maybe like the death wobble being unrelated, the spatter is also unrelated. I can only hope... I did pass through a small construction zone. Maybe there was oil on the road...

what are the most common indicators that I have a bad HG? That's the things that it worrying me most right now. They only covered to 36k miles?

[muntu]

if you haven't topped up coolant yet it cant be that much of a leak..i've read where guys with puking trucks would top up 1/2 gal at a time.
mark your degas bottle with feld marker and see how much it goes down every 100 miles.

[pyro2nite]

Bad HG will push the coolant out the degas bottle. White smoke from the exhaust is most often EGR. Clean the engine compartment and under the truck the best you can. This way anything new will show up easier. Your HG should be covered for 100,000 miles.