Overheating 3rd Gen 3l TD

[flamesnm]

All

Not been on for a while as the truck has just kept on trucking. Until last night, just as I pulled into the driveway, alot of steam escaping from underneath the bonnet. Engine temp immediately shot up. I had noticed earlier that day that it seemed to be down on power on accelerating. No prior problems.

Anyway, some troubleshooting today. I ran it up to temperature a couple of times, and it didn't overheat. I'm getting vented hot air through the vents. Oil seems fine. However, I filled it with coolant/water mix this morning and that has GONE. No leaks. Just refilled it with straight water ( I'm out of coolant ) and running it up to temperature again.

Ran it with the rad cap off to do a gentle bleeding. Hit the acc pedal and got a coolant fountain out of the radiator. Not sure if that signifies anything. While I was under there, I also noticed I have an oil leak.

[Nige. coll]

if there are no external leaks and the water keeps going down you could have problems.

any bubbling in the radiator?
are the hoses excessively hard when rad cap on and engine running ?
does it smoke more normally white ish in colour ?

if you have a friendly local garage you could ask them to do a test on it with the colour change fluid.
that will tell you if there are hydrocarbons in the cooling system .

[flamesnm]

Thanks Nige. coll

I can't hear any radiator bubbling. There's no water droplets coming out of the exhaust. I'll go and check the hoses now. No white smoke, just the usually puff on initial startup in the morning ( which has been there for 3 year ! )

If I can't pin it down, there's a garage just down the road I can go and ask to cast an expert eye over it.

Something traumatic happened yesterday, I just can't find what it is

[NiftyNev]

Replace radiator cap if it's a bit old. Then try refilling and either pressure test cooling system or drive it to get up to temperature, then check for leaks.

Nev.

[J i m s t e r]

Check the rear heater pipes are not shot, these can corrode through and dump your water/coolant mixture. Happened to me, fortunately it was on a dry day and I could see it under the truck.

Search here will reveal that you can either cap off these pipes from under the bonnet or replace the pipes with copper ones.

[flamesnm]

Thanks all.

Just had in sitting running for about an hour and no overheating. Took it for a short spin, and the temperature is fine. There were definitely no leaks when the coolant disappeared this morning.

Booked it in for a pressure test and check for exhaust gases tomorrow morning. I'll report back.

Radiator cap is the original and therefore old, so I'll order one of those up as well.