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Puking out coolant!

Max Attitude

Max Attitude

Typical White Person
Messages
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Location
Alto, MI
Well my truck wouldn't warm up today after driving for 20 minutes. Got back to the shop and popped the hood....coolant reservoir was pressurized and puking out coolant out of the overflow. :mad2: Head gaskets? Something else?:frown2:

This sucks, hopefully my dealer wont be a pain. They are usually good about stuff, but I haven't had a slightly modified truck in their shop yet. 88k miles on the truck.
 
As cold as it is, I don't think that you have an overheater.

Head gaskets are my first suspicion. Is the upper radiator hose hard? Does the exhaust smell like coolant?
 
I just checked the hose and it does seem a bit hard...like it has pressure in it. It isn't flattened like some people see. My coolant level is high and pressurized too.

I just started the truck and smelled the exhaust and it smells just like diesel(probably lost a few brain cells on that test).
 
okay, first things first. get a new cap and try that. the vent might be plugged and not releasing the pressure until it gets hot and pukes. then if that doesnt work bring it to the dealer. unless you feel up to pulling glow plugs.
 
I'll try to get a cap first and try that but wouldn't the radiator hose be flat?
I scheduled for Mon. at the dealer. Should be covered...
 
Mine has been leaking some for a while. I put a cap and thermostats in a while back. It helped but it still blows a little once in a while so it's going to need worked on. Luckily none of the dealers near me even have a duramax tech anymore...
 
NAR said:
Mine has been leaking some for a while. I put a cap and thermostats in a while back. It helped but it still blows a little once in a while so it's going to need worked on. Luckily none of the dealers near me even have a duramax tech anymore...
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Well that's encouraging for you. :mad2:

Good to see you over here Nar.:seeya:
 
Check the hose and see if it's hard after it's cooled. I'll bet it is. Sounds more like a head gasket than a cap, just in the fact that it didn't heat up and the level is high. This tells me that you have an air pocket in the cooling system, and it's most likely not high either. It's probably low. The air pocket will be in the most critical area, the heads. DO NOT DRIVE IT LIKE THIS UNLESS YOU KEEP BLEEDING IT AND ADDING COOLANT. You'll warp the heads for sure. Ask me how I know.:mad2::mad2: I didn't catch mine in time. I ran mine with the air pocket, probably only a day or so. I don't know if yours is the same or not, but on the gooseneck on mine there is a 12mm bolt to bleed the air out. I left mine just loose enough to be bleeding the air all the time. If you just have it cracked enough, you can see the coolant bubbling around the base. When there is no air, it hardly leaks at all if you do it right.

PS Some will tell you don't shave the heads and get new ones. I had mine shaved and it's still running fine. In fact, I was running a big enough tune that my latest problem is a smoked transmission. I have about 20,000 miles on since I did my head gaskets. PM me if you want a link to a set of ARP had studs that only cost $580 shipped.
 
Sparky8370 said:
I don't know if yours is the same or not, but on the gooseneck on mine there is a 12mm bolt to bleed the air out. I left mine just loose enough to be bleeding the air all the time. If you just have it cracked enough, you can see the coolant bubbling around the base. When there is no air, it hardly leaks at all if you do it right.

PS Some will tell you don't shave the heads and get new ones. I had mine shaved and it's still running fine. In fact, I was running a big enough tune that my latest problem is a smoked transmission. I have about 20,000 miles on since I did my head gaskets. PM me if you want a link to a set of ARP had studs that only cost $580 shipped.
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What is the gooseneck? and where is it located?

As for the heads and stuff....I'm sure that will be up to the dealer as they should be fixing it under warranty.
 
Sweet, I forgot most people have warranties. You should still get the ARP head studs and have them throw those in though.
 
Sparky8370 said:
Sweet, I forgot most people have warranties. You should still get the ARP head studs and have them throw those in though.
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Does the dealer replace the stock head studs with new ones? If they do...how much different are they price wise from the ARPs?
 
Not sure on all that, but if you wanted them replaced with ARP I'm sure that you would have to pay for them yourself.
 
Well if that is the case then my heads are screwed. Several times when it got to the low coolant reminder point it was a few days before I added some and bled it. Right now in fact it's been a couple days, I need to go get more damn coolant. Sigh... I have until june to get mine fixed on the 5 year part of the engine warranty. Tempting to just do it myself and put the studs in rather than mess with a dealer.

Actually running it with that air pocket there was probably what messed mine up. I got it hot towing really hard and heavy into the wind this spring. Blew coolant out and I didn't get it bled quick enough then I bet.
 
Center of the motor right in front there is a aluminum thermostat housing. The bolt in the center doesn't hold the housing on, it's the bleeder. If you try to add coolant you have to open that to let the air out. When you had the no heat blowing problem it was because it had an air pocket there and wasn't letting the thermostats open right, so then no heat was circulating and going into your heater core.
 
NAR said:
Center of the motor right in front there is a aluminum thermostat housing. The bolt in the center doesn't hold the housing on, it's the bleeder. If you try to add coolant you have to open that to let the air out. When you had the no heat blowing problem it was because it had an air pocket there and wasn't letting the thermostats open right, so then no heat was circulating and going into your heater core.
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Thanks!
 
i would not have them shave the heads. the gm spec is very small spec to the tune of .0079. ever seen that:). it may work but i would not attempt it as the warp is almost gauranteed to be more than that.

the head studs are not worth it imo either. unless your running monster timing, fuel and boost to have cylinder pressures that need holding. the labor and install process will cost you a couple hrs labor for sure at the dealer. plus i dont like the tighten/loosen sequence 3 times on these gaskets that have trouble with leaks already.
 
Ok thanks stacks.

Is the dealer going to look at the ecm programming? Should I worry about getting my Predator out? I'm having problems with that right now too... http://dieseltowingresource.com/showthread.php?t=6155

This is what MikeL from Diablo said- "It can be tough to diagnose issues like this without seeing the truck, but if it needs to go to the dealer, thats fine.

They will not be able to see the tune installed unless they actually read the file out and send it to an engineer in Detroit to read and compare it to a sock file."


I don't know about that...seems whenever I read about someones truck getting worked on they look at the ecm programming and try to blame it on that. :confused:
 
you should be fine on that. what tune level is in? i know the tech 2 doesnot read pulse iirc and unless you have an experienced tech that has tuning experience they wont know.
 
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