What are the signs of a cracked head or blown headgasket? I have had to add a gallon of antifreeze to my system. I am wondering where it could be going. My only guess is it is getting burned or it is in the oil.

 

Did you look at the dipstick? A gallon of coolant in the oil would be pretty obvious.

No leaks you can see anywhere?

When you have a compression leak into the cooling it will push the coolant out the overflow. Is the reservoir overflowing?

 

The oil looks fine, normal level. The overflow is getting sucked down. When i first checked it my radatior was low so i filled it with prestone antifreeze, then i filled my overflow up to the max line. I then drove around 200 miles and my overflow was down about an 2 inches from the max fill line, then i filled the bottle back up and i drove around another 200 miles and it was back down around 2 inches, i have filled it again and i havnt drove that much since the last time i filled it.

 

you don't have any external leaks? make sure to check around the heat exchanger under the turbo.

 

I have looked for leaks but i havnt found any yet. I will look better tomorow where its daylight.

 

Well i looked for leaks today and found none, but what i think it is doing is going into the overflow and then it pukes very little out then when the engine cools off and i start it cold i think it draws the fluid back in making the level of antifreeze in the overflow bottle go down. That is my theory right now. What do you think?

 

To test that theory, look at the reservoir with the engine hot.

 

with the engine hot but not on a long run the level in the tank comes up about 2 inches on a 30 minute drive.

 

SOP is the proper operating system has:
- With starting the truck , any free or dissolved gases migrate to the top of the radiator under the cap. With the expansion and rising pressure in the system, said gases are pushed through the cap and into the reservoir and out.
- With the truck shut down, the engine and coolant, cool down and contract. That creates a subtle vacuum that now pulls liquid coolant back from the reservoir and into the system that ultimately replaces the gas(s) expelled.

The goal is among other things, expel any oxygen be-it free (as in air) or dissolved in the water you mixed with the antifreeze concentrate. With keeping the oxygen out of the system, the iron can't rust as we normally would see it.

 

It ain't blowing it out the overflow then.

 

are you burning it somehow?

 

idk, i do have a slight haze at idle with no pump modifications.

 

and you're running stock injectors as well? you could have a compression leak just like i did. when the engine is running, is your upper hose really stiff? that's a sign of a compression leak. also, start you truck with the radiator cap removed when it's anywhere from cold to warm, not hot, if you see smoke coming out of the neck, that's another good sign. i'm an experienced one now after seeing both of those symptoms on mine lol

 

yes my engine is all stock. I dont have money for performance items yet. lol. I will go check this out in a couple minutes and let you know what i find out.

 

What is the level under the actual radiator-cap when COLD ??

It should be full right up in the neck.

If not, then FILL it, put the cap back on, fill the jug to maximum cold level, then see what happens.

I cured a dis-appearing coolant situation in two different trucks by simply changing to a lever-lock cap.