On the way home tonight I get a "Low Engine Power" reading in my gauge cluster. Then immediately my engine temp gauge maxes out. The engine seems to be running fine but I turn the engine off. I pop the hood, look around and see nothing unusual. I check the fluids and notice there's not coolant in the reservoir. I squeeze the top radiator hose and it's easy to squeeze like there's no coolant in the hose. I pull the thermostat thinking it may be stuck. Again no coolant in the hose when I remove it and the thermostat seems to be operating i.e. it doesn't seem to be getting stuck open or close.

Could this be my water pump? If so how do I check? I would say normally I would start the engine and look in the radiator for moving water but this thing doesn't have a radiator cap just an over flow reservoir.

Thanks for the assist.

 

This morning I filled the reservoir with tap water and ran the engine. So far the engine has remained cool after a couple miles. Actually too cool, it has not hit center line on the meter. I will drive it further to see what happens.

 

You have a coolant leak somewhere. Regardless if the water pump is working or not, there should always be coolant in the reservoir and upper radiator hose. You have to find and repair the leak. It is possible that the water pump stopped working and the engine overheated and boiled off a large amount of coolant through the overflow, but you usually smell that. Modern coolants don't have a strong smell like older formulas, but they all have a sick sweet smell, like slightly burned brown sugar.

 

I drove the truck around town in 80 degree temps and the engine temp gauge never moved much about the C on the gauge. I was in stop and go traffic as well as highway traffic.

How can I check the water pump? It has squealed like the bearings were going out.

As a note I did have a leak in my heater core but bypassed that two weeks ago and I haven't had an issue until yesterday and I drive about 700 miles a week.

 

Check engine light came on last night "engine temp below threshold" and "hot heads" reinstalled new thermostat this morning. How can I get a below threshold and hot heads?

 

Because your coolant is low again. Stop driving it before you warp the heads and have a really expensive repair. A squealing water pump is bad, replace it.

 

I meant to say NO squealing from the water pump. When I replaced the thermostat this morning there was water in the top hose and block unlike Friday when I took out the original thermostat. Water temp goes to mid-line and stays there. I will drive it today and look again for leaks but nothing so far.

 

 

Good clean 5W-20 full synthetic. I have to admit that question scared the ****e right out of me.

Could a bad thermostat have caused to engine to respond like this?

 

The coolant went somewhere, if it isn't an external leak, there's an internal leak, intake manifold or head.

This engine isn't cooled by whiskey, so the angels didn't come acquire their share.