Coolant Leak! Help! This thing is killing me!

Sounds like you need a new heater core. Make sure he cleans out the heater box or you will be smelling anti-freeze for some time to come. It's not uncommon for new thermostats to be defective out of the box. A new temp sending unit is cheap and worth a try. I'd also consider hooking up an aftermarket temp gauge just to see if you are really having temp problems. H

I'm assuming that your fan belt is not glazed and the tensioner is functioning properly. H

2) is the clue: your heater core or the connections for it are leaking. Any decent shop can pressurize the cooling system with the engine cold and find a leak. I think your shop is taking you for an expensive ride; they've replaced a lot of parts and haven't fixed the problem yet. As for the fluctuating gauge, with a working thermostat, and the other parts replaced, there's probably air trapped in the system. That'll do it. Good Luck!

Bill Funk Change "g" to "a"

Did you replace the intake manifold gasket? I'm not sure what you mean by "near the dash" but if that is inside the engine compartment the intake manifold could possibly be leaking at the back Did you check to see if the heater core is leaking? There is a drain tube that goes through the firewall on the passenger side. It should be fairly obvious if it's leaking if you look underneath and up.

: My problems now: : 1)temp gauge still fluctuating

: 2)this morning it started leaking antifreeze near the dash but not inside : the truck (and its still leaking) and it also started putting out : antifreeze "moisture" out of all my vents including my defrost (which is : fogging up my windows now), but a/c and heat still work.

Definitely heater core - simple and inexpensive to fix

From my post of June this year Sho nuff.... Gained access to the heater core, had a tad bit of moisture/wetness/liquid (antifreeze) in/on the access cover. Pulled the two heater hoses and pulled the heater core.

At $20 for a replacement, ain't even worth screwing around to repair this one.

For future reference, to gain access to the access panel, one needs to pull the four plastic insert fasteners that retain a 'gray fiber' panel underneath the glove box area. Once this is removed, the four bolts that hold this access panel in place are accessible and a few turns with a 10mm socket had the panel removed...

Installation is reverse... Didn't even bother to drain the coolant from the system. Prolly only lost a cup of coolant in the process...

Happy motoring

Rick

Good luck with the $20 heater core. I bought a cheap one and it only lasted about 9 months. I ended up paying Ford $85 for the OEM one. I think part of the problem may be that the cheap one is brass and the OEM is aluminum and we may be getting some mixed metals and some electrolysis going on in there.