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I've been thinking that this might be my problem, too. I haven't been back to this thread in a while (to post my ongoing problem) so here it is now:
Even when I think I have purged all the air from the cooling system, more air seems to get in somehow, yet there are no leaks anywhere on the outside of the engine. Therefore it seems there is only one way for excess air to get in -- a head gasket leak. So here's what must be happening:
The engine forces some air into the cooling system, perhaps at startup (as you mentioned) or perhaps at another time, or maybe all the time. This excess air builds up until it creates a larger air bubble in the cooling system. The air bubble does not move easily through the system, instead it gets stuck at high spots. When it gets stuck it stays there long enough to create a hot spot. Eventually coolant dislodges the air bubble and hits the hot spot, then it instantly flashes to steam ...
The pressure created by this steam bubble forces coolant out the overflow's pressure cap. Now there's more air and less coolant in the system which makes it likely that this problem will repeat itself again, more and more frequently, until the cooling system is finally allowed to cool down, refilled, and is manually burped again. Then all this happens again the next time the truck is run.
So yes, I am considering the use of the Bar's Leaks product you linked to above. It contains carbon micro-fibers and it is guaranteed to work (obviously it may not, but it's probably worth a try). This is what it looks like:
Bar's Leaks has another head gasket / block sealant product too. It is cheaper, maybe because it uses some other kind of fibers that don't work as well as the carbon micro-fibers. Here's a picture of the other one:
My local Walmart has the cheaper one in-stock but I'll try the better one you used, especially now that you've given a review that says it has worked for you for 6000+ miles. I trust your review more than I trust the ones on the company's website ...
Your truck
But when you put another engine in, plan on radiator and heater core too......
In meantime, you drive a timebomb that will catastophically fail any time. You cant trust your vehicle. And it WILL fail in future
Only "fix" is to bite bullet. New engine, or hg if do yourself
First step is drop tranny pan and see if its worth fixing...if theres a bunch of metal...its probably not.
Once you have major internal problem on old vehicle...the value is scrap unless fix it. You already lost the $. You cant change that.
You can decide to drive a vehicle you can trust though. And should, somehow.
I was able to drive mine 10000+ miles with little issue other than misfire light occassionally and half gallon coolant every 6 mo. Then it got bad quick. By that time i had plans to replace engine in place.
Don't be surprised if all of that settles in your heater core and you have no heat.
I don't have any heat most of the time anyways because the heater core is the highest component in the cooling system, so air keeps collecting in there.
It doesn't take a genius to realize that for a coolant overflow reservoir to work properly it MUST be located at the highest physical location in the heating system -- because one thing it's supposed to do is collect/trap excess air that's in the system. But in these trucks the heater core is almost a foot higher than the coolant cap, so the heater core (rather than the overflow tank) traps much of the excess air.
Why Ford never bothered to fit an extra coolant overflow bottle above the heater core is beyond me ... or relocate the existing one there so it would function properly. I've actually been thinking about installing an extra overflow reservoir high on the firewall and connecting it to my Flush and Fill tee. Then instead of my heater core trapping air this extra reservoir would trap it. This should also help prevent coolant from being expelled periodically.
I'd re-test the coolant for hydrocarbons.
I've been thinking about doing this. I may go out and buy the test fluid later today. No sense in messing with a bandaid approach like Bar's if my head gasket is NOT leaking! But what could cause this ongoing problem if not a head gasket leak???
Your truck. But when you put another engine in, plan on radiator and heater core too.
If I have to spend enough money for for a new engine I won't mind. At that point I will have such a huge expense that a few hundred more won't matter.
In meantime, you drive a time bomb that will catastrophically fail any time. You can't trust your vehicle. And it WILL fail in future.
I can understand why you say this if I leave the Bar's in it, because I've read that if the Bar's ever gets into the crankcase or transmission oil the engine/tranny will be toast. But let me ask you this:
Let's assume that I use the Bar's correctly and it works, but I leave it in there only a day or two, then I do a flush and refill to remove all the Bar's that did not plug the hole. Wouldn't this prevent the engine from a catastrophic failure of the kind you predict? Or is there some other reason why you predict a catastrophic engine failure?
Only "fix" is to bite bullet. New engine, or hg if do yourself
I agree, and I've considered doing it myself. But apparently it requires special tools that could add a couple hundred to my parts costs. Besides, I'm far too busy to take on such a project at this time. So I have no plans to fix it properly at this point in the game. This leaves me with "drive it as-is" or "try the Bar's stuff". Either way I still have to hope for the best, and I won't be driving a truck that's as reliable as it once was.
Or I can "just park it" and put my old Plymouth Sundance back on the road for a while until I have time to change the head gasket in the truck. But this could be a very long time, and I don't like parking a vehicle in order to 'fix it later' because sometimes later never comes. So this is not a great choice for me either.
First step is drop tranny pan and see if its worth fixing...if theres a bunch of metal...its probably not.
I just changed the transmission fluid and filter 3 months ago and it looked great. There were super-tiny flecks of metal in the pan, but not a lot, and they were all extremely small -- which I think is a good sign after 120,000+ miles, correct?
I was able to drive mine 10000+ miles with little issue other than misfire light occasionally and half gallon coolant every 6 mo. Then it got bad quick. By that time i had plans to replace engine in place.
Mine blows more coolant out than yours did. If I keep driving mine the way it is, I may be better off installing that extra overflow tank I mentioned above. Then I won't lose coolant every time I take it for a moderately long drive.
My bro, his 99 blew out on him suddenly
He had to have a working vehicle
He towed it to toyota dealership, got $800 , drove away in new tacoma. No luxury of time to futz with it.
No understating peace of mind that a reliable vehicle gives you.
I likes my 2003 screw, i put $7000 into mine fixing up everything. Money id never get back by selling..have to drive it. 2.5 yrs later still smiling.
Honestly, with me i dont mind depreciation on a new one as much as having to pay the state sales tax....9%. i could put engine in for just what TAX would be on a new truck, or even new used truck....
Snake oil with a mean bite....why punish yourself ?
It's not that I want to destroy the engine with the snake oil, but if the problem is the head gasket I'll have to spend a couple thousand to replace it, or a couple thousand to replace the engine. That's the same financial expense either way ... but I'm not ready to invest that much money into the truck right now.
So my cheap immediate options are (1) drive it as-is and deal with the inconvenience of refilling the coolant every trip, or (2) try the snake oil cure and hope it fixes the leak for a while so I don't have to refill the coolant every day, or (3) rig up an extra overflow tank that catches the coolant that gets expelled almost every time I drive it.
#3 seems the best option to me at this time, because it totally avoids catastrophic engine damage by the snake oil, and it eliminates the inconvenience of daily refilling and burping the system ... and if I'm lucky I can maybe get another 10,000 miles out of the truck (like mbb did) before it absolutely demands to be fixed properly.
No understating peace of mind that a reliable vehicle gives you.
You got that right! With my truck's recent problems, and considering that my wife just got her driver's license for the first time last month (and the fact that I have almost no time to work on the truck) it just seemed the right time for us to get another vehicle. So last Saturday I bought her a new Ford Focus. Now we have two vehicles, which hopefully means one will always be available to us when the other is getting fixed.
I've been thinking about doing this. I may go out and buy the test fluid later today. No sense in messing with a bandaid approach like Bar's if my head gasket is NOT leaking! But what could cause this ongoing problem if not a head gasket leak???
I sure as hell don't know the answer to that question, but for the sub-$40 expense of the test kit I think it's worth knowing. Compression or leak down tests might be worth it too. My inclination would be to 100% root out the cause as best I could before spending any more money be that $30 for some stop-leak or $2500 for a new engine.
What you shouldn't do right now is suspect the gasket and treat as such. It's not worth the chance you take with that stuff. Just test for hydrocarbons. It's a cheap little kit offered at 3rd party auto suppliers. If your losing coolant, it's going somewhere, lets figure it out. I don't feel like re-reading the thread yet, in order to see what's been done up to this point...can you post a quick 123 about what you've done up to this point ? If it's not too much trouble, or I'll catch up with everything later...no biggy. I wouldn't take the chance yet or doom that engine...unless you know for sure it's toast.
With symptoms op has, i suspect combustion gas test works good. Mine was very minor at first, and hard to convince myself it was real color change.
Rotating suspect cyl to tdc and putting 40 psig on cyl took away all doubt when i could hear bloop...bloop...bloop..and watch level come up and overflow reservoir.
Point is...no single test is perfect...its a bunch of symptoms added together. Too many shops do a compression test only...hot. while minor leaks may only happen cold...and not even be detectable on compression test. Especially because crud, or coolant in the leaking cyl from misfires and coolant actually raises compression. My bad cyl was 190, the rest was 165 ish.
