Cooling System Issues

[jameyw]

Have run into an issue with the cooling system that has me somewhat perplexed...

94 Mighty Max 4x4 with 3.8L V-6

My son came to me saying the truck was running a little hot. Temp not in the red zone but higher than normal. I added antifreeze and life went on. A few days later he comes to me again saying the truck over-heated and actually go into the red zone. I check the truck and no water in the reservoir bottle. I added close to 2 gallons of water to the radiator and then started the truck and let it come up to temp. I let it run a while and the temp gauge came up to the normal range and stayed there. After shutting the engine off and squeezing hoses I noticed there was no water in the upper radiator hose. My conclusion was a bad thermostat. I picked up a thermostat and went to swap it out today and ran into issues. I opened the radiator and there was no water. I opened the thermostat housing and no water in there either. Everything is covered in residue that is sort of copper colored and smells like old motor oil (has a gasoline smell). I added some water to see if I could see it coming out of the bottom but couldn't find anything (altho I didn't get underneath the truck). I added enough water for it come up to the thermostat and it was weird colored (same copper color). After sitting for 30 minutes or so, I noticed the water had dropped a half inch or so but still no sign of water dripping.

Any ideas or suggestions? Blown head gasket? I hope not... I don't want to rebuild an engine right now.

Thanks - Jamey

[pennyman1]

what about the oil - pull the dipstick. The water went somewhere.

[jameyw]

No water in the oil

[geezer101]

I think you have inherited a problem from way before you bought the truck. That coppery looking stuff in the cooling system is more than likely a stop-leak type of product. Does the exhaust smell sweet? And have you looked at the spark plugs? A clean plug would indicate coolant entering a combustion chamber (or 2...) Might be a dead head gasket or a cracked head.

[jameyw]

No stop leak that I know of. I have already rebuilt the engine once about 10 yrs ago due to a spun main bearing. Will keep digging but I foresee a rebuild in the future.

[geezer101]

A leak of this size 'should' be obvious. The coppery debris in the cooling system is a mystery if you haven't added it yourself and you personally rebuilt it 10 years ago. Hope for your sake it's just a blown head gasket (even then that isn't great but better than a cracked head...)

[jameyw]

Turned out to be a blown head gasket. As soon as we pulled the head, it was obvious. The exhaust valve in #3 cylinder was the sme color as the coolant.

[Law Dog]

Change the radiator cap if you think about it mine over heated and the cap would leak after that put on a new cap and it's back to normal. That cap was almost 30 years old the other ones I had in the shop were all starting to break down also so a cheap investment.

[tortron]

The coppery stuff is dried off coolant, i noticed some on the areas where i spilled some coolant the other day