Archived Help - Coolant Blowing out of Catch Tank

[rblomquist]

Just got back from towing our new camper trailer home and in the process of moving our crap in it I noticed the inside right fender well had fluid all over it. At first I though it was oil but when I popped the hood the fluid catch tank was plumb full and it had spewed coolant out of the overflow spout all over the fender well. I took the radiator cap off and it was a couple of inches low. I didn't notice the truck running even up to 190 on the way home (unless it spiked on the tail end of our trip home) and I'm pretty sure it didn't puke any out while we were towing our old trailer to the RV stealer.



I installed a fresh cummins 180 t-stat about 2 months ago along with some Rotella ELC and had been towing w/no probs since then. The new trailer is a couple of k heavier than the old but still only now around 6-7k, present state.



This truck is my daily driver so I need to figure out what's wrong ASAP. Could the water pump have gone south? I know the orig owner said he had replaced it while he had it.



Any thoughts/help would be much appreicated



p. s. DD installed a new TTPM on the truck yesterday but I don't see how that could effect this... ... ... ... ...

 

[illflem]

Hate to say this but you could have a blown head gasket.

 

[lschultz]

Back when I had my 91 the oil cooler in the block sprung a leak and it filled the catch can of with a mixture of oil/antifreeze. But it was obvious something was wrong. Sounds like yours is something different.

 

[rblomquist]

Thanks for the replies. I think it was a bad radiator cap. I'm 99% sure the one on there was the orig one and when one of my neighbors said to suspect the cap I noticed that I didn't even have to press down on the cap to get it to lock in. Checker was still open so I went and got a new cap from them, topped off the fluid and pulled the trailer for a test drive. Fingers are crossed but I think that was the problem. I checked the neighbors cap on his 99 (convenient huh) and his spewed fluid out under good pressure and I remembered that mine would barely bubble any fluid out when I cracked it. After I pulled the trailer with the new cap the fluid blasted out of the cap when I cracked it. I don't think I was pressurized very much with the old OEM cap. I've been slowely changing out a lot of stuff on this 99 since I bought it last fall, just didn't think about the cap.





p. s. I noticed that the OEM cap was 15psi but the one I got a checked was 16psi (any biggie or should I get a DC or cummins cap on Monday?)

 

[Ben Rumson]

Radiator Caps are an important component of the cooling "system" and are often overlooked.



For my 100k Preventive Maintenance:

Replaced Rediator Cap with a 16psi cap (Autozone)

Replaced Antifreeze

Replaced all Break Fluid

Serpentine Belt

Spark Plugs and Distributer Cap (... just kidding)



I'm now at 158k. The 16 psi cap hasn't given me a moments trouble - with numerous LONG HARD pulls under it's belt.



Since the OEM cap and Serpentine Belt weren't faulty (persay) when I replaced them, I threw them in the tool box for spares - along with last year's Fuel Filter and a strap wrench - road insurance...



I think you'll be fine with your new 16 psi cap.



Happy Pulling

 

[rblomquist]

Ben, thanks for the reply. You're right, the cap is real easy to overlook, I've been trying to insure myself against anything that would be easily avoidable with a little PM and forethought i. e. spare FF & t-stat under the back seat but for whatever reason (probably cause I've never had a cap go bad) I overlooked that bugger. Anyway, just glad it was only a $4. 10 fix for a 16psi cap.