ok
i called the mechanic today to checkup on the truck.
they found that the heater core and an oring on the water pump was leaking.
so they temporally bypassed the heater core and replaced the oring in the pump.
then they drained the oil and hooked up the cooling system to the pressure machine at the shop and left it with it on to see if there was any coolant in the tray in the morning.
no leaks detected.
so then they talked with the other mechanics to determine the next thing to do.
they put a uv dye in the oil system to check for contamination in the coolant after some driving.
so i picked it up today and drove it home. next week ill drive it about a 100 mi then drive it back to the shop for them to find the leak with the dye.
Its a no brainer to me. If you can get a replacement for the price of a wanna-be rebuild, I'd just replace it. The engine has a bunch of miles on it, so who's to say that a month down the road you break a valve spring and suck a valve into the cylinder or something catastrophic like that. Then the engine is toast and you just dumped over 2k into it, and your going to need another 2k to drive it again. That's my 2 cents :dunno:
My dad had water mixing with the engine oil on his old John Deere 450 track loader. He added some stuff from the auto parts store into the radiator that stopped the leak. I don't remember what it was called but it's the stuff that has the solid balls, not the liquid. I think I've seen this stuff at walmart too. It does eventually start leaking again but he does several oil changes before adding more. I don't know how many hours it lasts because the hour meter doesn't work. It might be worth trying if you don't want to fork out the cash to get it fixed.
My dad had water mixing with the engine oil on his old John Deere 450 track loader. He added some stuff from the auto parts store into the radiator that stopped the leak. I don't remember what it was called but it's the stuff that has the solid balls, not the liquid. I think I've seen this stuff at walmart too. It does eventually start leaking again but he does several oil changes before adding more. I don't know how many hours it lasts because the hour meter doesn't work. It might be worth trying if you don't want to fork out the cash to get it fixed.
Its a no brainer to me. If you can get a replacement for the price of a wanna-be rebuild, I'd just replace it. The engine has a bunch of miles on it, so who's to say that a month down the road you break a valve spring and suck a valve into the cylinder or something catastrophic like that. Then the engine is toast and you just dumped over 2k into it, and your going to need another 2k to drive it again. That's my 2 cents :dunno:
Does your truck have 326,000 original miles or was it rebuit at 260,000? If it was rebuilt is there any kind of warranty? You might want to find out what exactly was rebuilt on the engine. Did they put in new liners or did they just put in new piston rings? If it has 326,000 original miles then you might want to just try the "stop leak" stuff (not sure of the actual name) to squeeze thousands of more miles out of the engine before spending money on a rebuild.
Is there water in the oil too or just oil in the water?
Does your truck have 326,000 original miles or was it rebuit at 260,000? If it was rebuilt is there any kind of warranty? You might want to find out what exactly was rebuilt on the engine. Did they put in new liners or did they just put in new piston rings? If it has 326,000 original miles then you might want to just try the "stop leak" stuff (not sure of the actual name) to squeeze thousands of more miles out of the engine before spending money on a rebuild.
Is there water in the oil too or just oil in the water?
If it's a truck your not planning on getting rid of for a while than a nice rebuilt engine would be the path I'd take, but if you've been eyeing a different truck (4x4, new body style etc) then maybe you want to look into that idea. Just my .02 cents
So they are telling you 2100 to fix it, or is that just a diagnostic price? You do have a 7.3 that was rebuilt like 70k ago, so maybe repairing it is worth looking into :dunno:
I would drain all the coolant and get some real good block seal,I mean the real good stuff!! ypou put in the water like coolant run it for about 45min or a 60 min or so and drain let it sit for 24 hours and just put water back in and run it and get it hot and that will do the trick.for now.it give you time to look for good motor and you still can use your truck to go to school and work.until your motor comes in.and it could be a long time dont drop any more money in that thing.take it as a lost.F**k It.to much money to fix.and it sounds like you did aready.my 2 cents.:thumb:
Sounds like a crack in either the block or the cylinder heads.
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