Farm truck, cracked head gasket I think

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saltbranch

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Farm truck, cracked head gasket I think. 89 Chevy, 350 250k miles. Ranch truck only, no road time. I put a new radiator in it and went home for the week. Came up the next weekend, fire it up and went for a ride. Never smelled hot, never acted hot but I looked down and it over 260. Turn it off and let it sit, as I was no where near water. Next morning I go put water in and It has small leak at the plastic side tank. I pinched it closed with plyers and fixed that. Now While the cap is off and I am putting water in I get periods to where the water will shoot up out of the radiator.I cant get it take enough water to make it full. Next weekend I am pulling the t-stat and going back with out it to see what happens. No water in oil, no oil in radiator.
Anyone have any luck with bars leak or anything like that?
 
If it is pressurising the radiator like you described it sure sounds like a cracked head or blown head gasket. Do a compression test on it and a radiator pressure test.
Ken
 
All GM engines are known for cracking heads when they overheat. Ford is better, but a cracked head in a Chrysler is almost unheard of.
 
Mat Man":1peg7hzg said:
Most of the time they will miss when 1st started due to water in cylinder.
yep... and you can pull the plugs and have someone turn it over if its bad enough to blow water out of the cylinder... i use to take the t/stat out and take the drive belt loose from the pump.. fell the intake up where the t/stat hole is, level, then crank it... it will blow out the water in the hole or bubble up
 
Stop leak will work for awhile, if its a small crack, so will black pepper, i would start with the pepper.
 
If you just changed the radiator it could have air in the water pump and not pumping any water. If it got that hot it could have cracked head now though. I've seen water pumps "vapor lock" when there's air in the system.
 
Sounds like a stuck t- stat to me if it's blowing hot water out the radiator. If it was a bad head gasket or a cracked head you would most likely have water in the oil or oil in the radiator or blowing steam out the tail pipe. I said most likely, it doesn't always work that way, but from what you described I would start with a thermostat.
 
I installed the first radiator from Orielly's and got it fired up , coolant added and let the t-stat cycle several times getting the air purged adding coolant etc. A little bit later i find the new radiator leaking in the core. Pull it back out drive 30 miles to the Parts house,get another radiator coming. Picked it up next day and installed with same method, everything looked good. Came up next weekend and instead of checking oil/water like I should have, I fired it up went off into the pasture driving around. Thats when it got to 260. Anyways this is the last radiator I get from oriellys. I have always had good luck with them on other parts, but not radiators. I had the same issue a yr ago on my Jeep at home, getting bad radiators.
Will be checking the compression my next trip back. Pulling the t-stat and checking that. Just aggravating, should not have happened if I checked the truck like I preach to my kids. At Least it was not the tractor.
Run it till she blows maybe my new motto, then haul it to the scrapper :bang:
 
saltbranch":3mbyqie5 said:
I installed the first radiator from Orielly's and got it fired up , coolant added and let the t-stat cycle several times getting the air purged adding coolant etc. A little bit later i find the new radiator leaking in the core. Pull it back out drive 30 miles to the Parts house,get another radiator coming. Picked it up next day and installed with same method, everything looked good. Came up next weekend and instead of checking oil/water like I should have, I fired it up went off into the pasture driving around. Thats when it got to 260. Anyways this is the last radiator I get from oriellys. I have always had good luck with them on other parts, but not radiators. I had the same issue a yr ago on my Jeep at home, getting bad radiators.
Will be checking the compression my next trip back. Pulling the t-stat and checking that. Just aggravating, should not have happened if I checked the truck like I preach to my kids. At Least it was not the tractor.
Run it till she blows maybe my new motto, then haul it to the scrapper :bang:
might do what we alway done in the old days just leave the t/stat out all together.. if its just a old farm truck...
 
ALACOWMAN":320idb4i said:
saltbranch":320idb4i said:
I installed the first radiator from Orielly's and got it fired up , coolant added and let the t-stat cycle several times getting the air purged adding coolant etc. A little bit later i find the new radiator leaking in the core. Pull it back out drive 30 miles to the Parts house,get another radiator coming. Picked it up next day and installed with same method, everything looked good. Came up next weekend and instead of checking oil/water like I should have, I fired it up went off into the pasture driving around. Thats when it got to 260. Anyways this is the last radiator I get from oriellys. I have always had good luck with them on other parts, but not radiators. I had the same issue a yr ago on my Jeep at home, getting bad radiators.
Will be checking the compression my next trip back. Pulling the t-stat and checking that. Just aggravating, should not have happened if I checked the truck like I preach to my kids. At Least it was not the tractor.
Run it till she blows maybe my new motto, then haul it to the scrapper :bang:
might do what we alway done in the old days just leave the t/stat out all together.. if its just a old farm truck...
That was my plan actually. May dump in some liquid fixall of some brand if its still pushing water out like it is now and see how that works. I got it from a friend,( truck sat for 4-5 yrs) for 400.00 and I then put a fuel tank & pump, ran good. then replace radiator. If I could get a year out of it, beating around for not much more $$ I would feel better about it. It just stays on the ranch, no road use so it might make it awhile. It smokes some, has some blowby, runs good though. just not something i would tear into to replace a head gasket.
"Do as I say, not as I do" pretty much nails it :deadhorse: My kids are like, Wow Dad you did not check the truck :banana: ...smart azz'z, but i earned this one.
 
One way to tell if heads are cracked is to listen carefully when you shut the truck off. If heads are cracked you will hear a hissing sound, hard to explain but fire up your "good" vehicle and shut it off and listen and then do the same with the truck.
 
dun":1dprnxmv said:
Did you figure out the problem?
Yea, its a blown head gasket. I took it to the Mechanic I use all the time to confirm too. He told me about some stuff he has some luck with, does not work all the time he said, but I don't have much to lose. So far it seems to be working or at least slowing the symptoms down. Its not worth the cost to repair the right way to me. Using it mainly on weekends it may last awhile yet.
http://www.gobluedevil.com/headgasketsealer.html
 

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