F-150 cooling system puzzler.

Try this place for 'real McCoy' factory manuals:

Note that for your Ford the 'manual' will consist of a healthy stack of various sized volumes... I suggest getting them all.

Obviously, they are a big help during the life of the vehicle, but are also a good selling point when that day comes... or if it ends up being totaled or junked, the manuals sell well on eBay.

Good luck!

Erik

This would be the "automatic flush" configuration. Just fill the bottle when ever you drive somewhere.

It will be interesting to see if the cooling system leaks when you hook it up so that it builds pressure. This may have been a way to make it derivable long enough to sell. OTOH the puking cooling system may have been the reason it was sold.

-jim

Nate Nagel wrote:

Thanks for reinforcing my worst suspicions... I don't think the PO would rip me off because I know him, but a) he never did any work on the truck himself - he wouldn't know an overflow bottle from a head gasket and b) I have a receipt from a month or so ago detailing a cooling system flush and a pressure test (how could it have passed a pressure test like this?) so I have to wonder if the shop he was taking the truck to was cutting corners... although if there was a real problem I don't know why they wouldn't just tell him so he'd pay them to fix it.

we will see, I guess.

nate

I suspect that you already have your answer, but yes, the overflow hose needs to be above the sealing surface of the radiator cap (atmosphere). The other hose is a return for the lesser cooling circuits of the engine/vehicle, like heater core, induction warming, bypass circuits, etc. and must be routed to the standard radiator tank (under pressure).

Man, I haven't seen a Ford straight 6 in a while.

Toyota MDT in MO

Cool, I just really wanted to confirm that the other hose was going to the right place. I have to admit I've never seen anything like that before, and my friend with a slightly newer F-150 does not have that tee in the heater hose, nor a lower fitting on the radiator neck (guess that does kind of confirm that that is correct.)

Are you saying my truck is old? That's the newest vehicle I own! (that probably says something about my choices in vehicles, but I'm not sure what, and I'm not sure I want to know...)

nate

They could pressure test using the hose going to the overflow tank. Now was it that they didn't notice that it was hooked up wrong? or was it that they hooked it up wrong after they were done.

Yeah, something doesn't add up. but unless this guy only drove a few short trips since the work was done you would think he would have become aware of the problem. Doesn't seem like you could drive it alot like that without it losing enough coolant to overheat.

Nah, it's probably due to the stuff I see most. Even the old Fords I fix on the side are mid 90's and up. Heck, I'm not even sure what the '96-up bodystyle uses for the base engine... the smallest I've seen in those is the 4.6 V8.

Toyota MDT in MO

Hmmm... you may be on to something there. I guess i was ASSuming that they would have used an attachment that replaced the radiator cap, that's the only kind of pressure tester I'm familiar with.

I think that's exactly what happened. He sold me the truck because he used it only once a month or so. When I bought it the bottle was empty but the rad was full. I ASSumed that this was because the bottle was loose and flopping around (tabs busted) after I zip tied it in place and refilled I drove it around town for a couple days with no apparent ill effects. It didn't puke until I'd driven it for about 30 min. straight on the highway and then parked it.

nate