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New owner 53k miles, puked on me.

3K views 7 replies 5 participants last post by  DeuceFifty 
#1 · (Edited)
This post might be little long winded. Picked up a 08 F250 last month from a friend, and he had the basic done to the truck. EGR/DPF delete, XRT Pro Tuner and HD300, AFE Stage 2, and Banks Duals. He rarely dogged this truck, and I have known him for a while before I bought the truck from him, and is honest and the truck was well maintained by him with all the records to accompany.


The story starts after I went on about a 60 mile roundtrip to go check on a travel trailer and smelled a slight hint of coolant about 1 week ago. Looked in the drivers side wheel-well and saw the remains of where the leak was, and it dripped down in the area and on the undercarriage some and on the tire, basically splattered in the wheel-well. The Degas bottle did have some tell tale signs of where it had puked out of the cap.

Prior to this I had been driving the truck in the city to and from work which involves 0-55mph driving and stop and go with some spirited romps on HOT with the skinny pedal. So I chalked the original issue up ole bad coolant cap anomaly after verifying it had an OLD STYLE OEM cap on it. Went and picked up a Stant cap and topped it off when it was to the TOP fill mark on monday with the truck cold. It has never puked on me daily driving, only long highway trips/loaded.

Monday I picked up our 1st travel trailer which is a 30 ft Creekside weighing in at about 7000lbs. Towed it home in the city no issues no coolant use etc.

In prep for this weekend and our 1st outing I wanted to do a test tow and make sure everything was squared away with the weight distro hitch etc. It towed awesome, good temps, good delta's etc, good mileage.... Never saw above 200 on the gauge for ECT, and 5 degree split on the EOT as well. This was a 30 mile RT with a couple steep grades at highway speeds and I was towing on the STOCK setting with the HD300 tune. Low and behold I get some puke, and it again shows up in the wheelwell and on the harness's etc.

So I come home, go down to the dealer and get an updated 2010 Ford Cap, and ditched the stant cap. Did not add coolant. The coolant level was setting at the bottom of the fill now ( see pic)

I went back out again after the new Ford cap, and ran the same highway stretch without the trailer where my 1st INITIAL occurrence happened with the new Ford Cap. I ran the crap out of it on HOT and it didnt puke at all, pulled some grades at 30psi. Coolant level was around the bottom FILL LINE HOT.

I have read the stories, and pondered the HG issue. It is EGR and DPF deleted. No radiator hose leaks, the T recall has been done, no white smoke, no DTC 19-20mpg highway and 14mpg 100% city driving. Oil looks good, coolant looks good, no visible signs of other leaks. I have tried different power settings, and it has puked on HOT/STOCK both either on loaded or highway trips as mentioned over 20 miles.

I am leaning towards a case of overfilled coolant in the reservoir, and a bad cap possibly. I have heard these trucks are picked to coolant levels. It didnt puke with the lower level and Ford Cap after the re-test today. The prior occurrences the coolant level HOT was about 1-2" above the top FILL mark. Its at the bottom now.

My next step is a coolant system pressure test. I am taking it out t-morow for the weekend with the trailer and will probably just bring some extra coolant just in case it really gets rowdy. I will report back with findings. I love this truck, but want to cover my basis before taking the stud/gasket route. I have waited a longtime to pickup a Power-stroke. Kind of annoying, but it is what it is I guess, part of the game.

Thanks for the help in advance.


I have attached some pics below for reference.


Edge during today's Puke, EOT in lower right.




Wheelwell area



Underside




Coolant Level after it happened, warm and running, and where its at now.

 
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#3 · (Edited)
Small update

Went out camping and it still puked some coolant this weekend while towing, but never got low or anything. Temps never got about 202 degrees ECT, Delta's nore more than 10psi vs EOT. I was pulling a grade from 500-3400ft, if this was a serious issue I expected an exploitation on the grade with 7500lbs in tow.


Rented a coolant system pressure tester, and the system holds a good 14psi solid after the cap bleeds off as advertised. However one finding the Ford Cap like to bleed at 16psi, the Stant cap lets loose @ 13-14psi.

Rigged up an "on road" coolant system pressure tester from an old boost gauge I had laying around. Hooked it up to the port they capped off for the old TSB Venturi recall and drove around under load beating the truck pretty hard and got coolant system pressure up to 15psi after about 10-12 min of on/off loads and boosts on the skinny pedal. Didnt puke on me.

My coolant level is still somewhat higher than what I think it should be, especially after looking at some of the newer fill line on the updated degas battles. Its hard to say what my course of action is at this point. Not much left to point to besides studs/gaskets. Wasnt looking to spend 4-6k on this truck right off the bat. Guess it could be worse.
 
#4 · (Edited)
Since I have a massive amount of responses on this I will close the loop.


Adjusted the coolant level to where the updated bottles have the level which is about 1.5-2" below the lower fill mark "cold" No puking after 300 miles of towing 8000lbs worth of travel trailer on the "stock" setting with the HD300 tune, mostly @ 70-75mph working the truck fairly good. I also did some spirited romps on the skinny pedal with it "Performance" which makes the most power prior to the trips. Temps were no higher than 202 ECT and never exceeded 11psi delta, highest EOT seen was 213, no issues indicated. Averaged 12.3mpg.

Gonna keep an eye on it for now.


Fix? Adjusted coolant level & new OEM cap.
 
#5 ·
sounds alot better than studs and a HG hope that's a final fix for ya
 
#6 ·
Small update if anyone cares.


I have put on about 2000 miles since I adjusted the coolant level to a lower level and added a new coolant cap, and haven't had the truck puke on me at all.

I have towed about 1000 miles with as well on the weekend with an 8000lb load via 30' travel trailer. I even had the truck up to 214 degrees coolant temp last week towing up the side of a 30 degree incline for 2-3 miles getting into a nasty area with the travel trailer in the mountains, no issues.

So far so good. Oil, and coolant looks good.
 
#8 ·
I blew a radiator and had the whole system updated. Started with early job one cooling setup. I had the same problem. Filled the coolant up well within the fill range and the truck kinda worked the excess out until it was just right. 3 months and no problems so you should be ok. I was terrified i had a blown hg but compression levels were just right and coolant has no oil in it, no coolant in oil sample either.
 
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