[Brucej42k]

Ended up taking the truck to get something to eat, long story short I parked the truck and get out, and notice that coolant is just POURING out from under the front left side of the truck. So i popped the hood, and can very visibly see that the Degasse bottle (coolant overflow tank) had spewed out all over my battery and other accessories.

What would be the cause of losing all of this coolant?

Why is there such an immense pressure build up inside the tank that it literally pushes all of the coolant in the bottle out the top if I refill it?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I built this motor and it has maaaybe 3-4,XXX miles on it and I got the motor as a long block so I never fooled with the heads so im not too worried about a headgasket crack or leak. There isn't any diesel inside the coolant tank or anything. The odd thing is that the truck isnt overheating. Well, ever since its happened I haven't ran it very hard and will continue to do so until my cooling system issue is fixed so I dont ruin all of the hard work put into getting it together. Just confused about why its shooting my coolant out, and i'm not able to find any information on the subject. No, i did not have the radiator cleaned before i put it in the truck so i'm thinking its possible i have a blockage somewhere in the cooling system.

 

[hansel]

Maybe you need a new coolant cap, I would start there.

 

[Brucej42k]

I honestly never considered something that simple. I was looking for some kind of fatal flaw. It looks newish, but I have no clue how old it is.

 

[JustinOOO9]

Ended up taking the truck to get something to eat, long story short I parked the truck and get out, and notice that coolant is just POURING out from under the front left side of the truck. So i popped the hood, and can very visibly see that the Degasse bottle (coolant overflow tank) had spewed out all over my battery and other accessories.

What would be the cause of losing all of this coolant?

Why is there such an immense pressure build up inside the tank that it literally pushes all of the coolant in the bottle out the top if I refill it?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I built this motor and it has maaaybe 3-4,XXX miles on it and I got the motor as a long block so I never fooled with the heads so im not too worried about a headgasket crack or leak. There isn't any diesel inside the coolant tank or anything. The odd thing is that the truck isnt overheating. Well, ever since its happened I haven't ran it very hard and will continue to do so until my cooling system issue is fixed so I dont ruin all of the hard work put into getting it together. Just confused about why its shooting my coolant out, and i'm not able to find any information on the subject. No, i did not have the radiator cleaned before i put it in the truck so i'm thinking its possible i have a blockage somewhere in the cooling system.

The coolant systems in these trucks need a perfect seal or it allows air into the system and allows the coolant to boil over much lower temp than a properly sealed system:

Check for cracks and hose connections on all hoses, check the water pump, check the water pump outlet. its either a straight pipe or elbow. Personally I would get a coolant pressure test kit free to rent from most auto parts and when the truck is cold pump it to say 5 psi carefully and then stop, look, listen and feel for any coolant coming out anywhere. then pump it to 10psi and look, listen, feel again. Then do the same when the engine is warm. A cold engine is easier to find leaks because the heat causes so much to expand ever so slightly but its good to check both ways.

 

[Brucej42k]

Thank you for your suggestions and information man it means the world that you took your time to share your advice. I'll most definitely be doing all of what you suggested, as a side piece of information, probably about ~500 miles ago I noticed it lost a little bit of coolant so I felt all around the tank and at the very bottom where the bottom hose feeds to the radiator there was just the slightest of leaks, so i'm pretty positive i just need a new coolant tank.

I would check all of the hoses but literally all of them are new including the water pump/water pump gasket.

My water pump is the type with the elbow connected not the straight. Its only leaking on the passenger side of the truck, that water pump sits on the right side of the engine so i'm pretty sure its a leaky Degas bottle

 

[Brucej42k]

Update: New coolant cap did nothing, ran the truck a little bit to see if it fixed my issue and no luck, blew out all of my coolant and now my engine is not sounding/running properly. Sounds like its misfiring right when I turn it over from cold and its blowing out a bunch of white smoke from the exhaust, which it hasn't done before. Any suggestions help, going to rent the pressure test kit and see if i can hear where the leak is coming from.

 

[JustinOOO9]

When a 7.3l diesel is warmed up/billowing white smoke it usually means coolant is entering in the combustion cycle. I would pull off the valvecovers and stick an inspection camera into each cylinder to see if any coolant is sitting in a cylinder. The pressure test kit can do damage so remember to go up in pressure in steps. so say for example start at 5psi then look/listen. Then 7-10psi look/listen and so on. I was thinking this was a 14psi system but any googeling will confirm that. Sometimes dealers are ok with giving away specs, some just hmm and haw and try to get you to bring the truck in etc.

 

[hansel]

Update: New coolant cap did nothing, ran the truck a little bit to see if it fixed my issue and no luck, blew out all of my coolant and now my engine is not sounding/running properly. Sounds like its misfiring right when I turn it over from cold and its blowing out a bunch of white smoke from the exhaust, which it hasn't done before. Any suggestions help, going to rent the pressure test kit and see if i can hear where the leak is coming from.

Man I was hoping for a simple fix for ya, but my guess now is blown head gasket which is rare in these engines.

 

[Hydro]

I would pull the glow plugs, then bump the engine over with the solenoid on the fender
while watching to see which cylinder blows coolant out

The pressure test on the radiator could hydro lock the engine -- and you will pull the glow plugs anyways to free that

 

[00t444e]

Could be a cracked head or block also.

 

[09SDLariat]

I’ve got the exact symptoms you had in your first post. Going to get a new cap tomorrow

 

[Brucej42k]

I'm not running any fancy new injectors or a bigger turbo or anything and this motor isn't even a year old. I don't have a whole bunch of mods done to the truck, i'm just curious if maybe a blocked up heater core/blocked radiator could be the reason this is happening. I just checked my degas bottle after throwing in new antifreeze and theres a sandy/silty residue on the sides of the tank so its got me thinking maybe the radiator had stuff in it when I initially put it in. This radiator was sitting beside my garage with a tarp over it but on bare ground, so i'm thinking its possible I need to do a coolant flush

 

[Brucej42k]

I’ve got the exact symptoms you had in your first post. Going to get a new cap tomorrow

Buying that new cap didn't help me at all. I bought more coolant, dumped it in, ran it a bit and ended up having the same issue.

 

[Brucej42k]

Ended up taking the truck to get something to eat, long story short I parked the truck and get out, and notice that coolant is just POURING out from under the front left side of the truck. So i popped the hood, and can very visibly see that the Degasse bottle (coolant overflow tank) had spewed out all over my battery and other accessories.

What would be the cause of losing all of this coolant?

Why is there such an immense pressure build up inside the tank that it literally pushes all of the coolant in the bottle out the top if I refill it?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I built this motor and it has maaaybe 3-4,XXX miles on it and I got the motor as a long block so I never fooled with the heads so im not too worried about a headgasket crack or leak. There isn't any diesel inside the coolant tank or anything. The odd thing is that the truck isnt overheating. Well, ever since its happened I haven't ran it very hard and will continue to do so until my cooling system issue is fixed so I dont ruin all of the hard work put into getting it together. Just confused about why its shooting my coolant out, and i'm able to find any information on the subject. No, i did not have the radiator cleaned before i put it in the truck so i'm thinking its possible i have a blockage somewhere in the cooling system.

Okay, for anyone having this issue, i've resolved it and will update as to what happened and why. I ended up pulling the motor thinking it was a possible headgasket after doing everything possible to get it to stop leaking. Turned out to be the Driver side headgasket had failed on me. One of the coolant holes that goes into the head had slowly pushed coolant through the gasket and made a pocket, which is where it allowed air to enter the system and boil off my coolant. If you guys are every having the same symptoms, I hate to say it, odd's are youve got a blown headgasket. It is possible, although very rare. I just got a lemon of a motor from the factory that probably sat there a few years before I was the lucky chump who bought the longblock. Ended up throwing in some ARP headstuds to make sure I dont have this issue again, and as of this post all i've gotta fix now is an oil leak

 

[Brucej42k]

Welp the issue is back. Truck ended up dumping the coolant out of the degas bottle once again. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Headgaskets have been replaced and installed with headstuds so that issue can be turned down as an option

 

[JustinOOO9]

Welp the issue is back. Truck ended up dumping the coolant out of the degas bottle once again. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Headgaskets have been replaced and installed with headstuds so that issue can be turned down as an option

Unforunatley not all stud jobs are the same. Numerous folks got studded and heads had minor issues or not surfaced correctly. Simply put you have air creeping into the system somewhere. I would rent a pressure tester from autzone and crank it to 5psi once its sat overnight and let it sit for say 10-20min, then crank to 8 psi and let it sit, once your at say 10-12psi if no apparent leaks are present its time to get an on the road diagnostics with an electronic pressure tester that can data-log and give you the final answer.

 

[Brucej42k]

This morning I drove the truck to work and it got about halfway to warming up, I parked it and got out while it was still running and noticed it leaking right in the middle of the truck, which it hasn’t done before. I get under it and see that the bigger radiator hose has a slow drip coming off it while running, but felt upward and couldn’t feel anything running down from it so it seems to be at the lower radiator fitting. These hoses can’t be any older than ~3 years old at this point, I have a band clamp holding them on, could it just be my old clamps not doing their job? Maybe a bad connection at the hose? I’ll end up getting a pressure tester and see what’s going on, trying to wean out any small dumb issues before moving onto anything durastic

 

[Mokey]

Did you ever figure this out? We are in the same somewhat sinking boat.....

 

[Jayman_4x4]

Btw i had the exact same problem. New motor w about 4,000 miles. The new injectors were torqued down to 120 inch lbs per ft per the international torque specs. But its too little. So they get loose nd the combustion gases come up and ruin the coolant cups, which separate the injectors and the coolant passages. In order to diagnose this you remove the injectors, pressurize the coolant system thru the overflow bottle to 15psi, and youll see coolant pooling up at the bottom of the injector cup. When you torque down the injectors after you replace the injector cups i was told to go to 140-150 inch lbs per ft

 

[MtnTallPaul]

Jayman, Welcome from Western NC!