dodgediesel

I was racing the other night(0 degrees outside) and I could hear the coolant rushing through my heating system. After the pass, I noticed the truck steaming so I pulled over. My rad overflow bottle was full and it sprayed glycol all over the passenger side of the engine. The truck would only blow cold air when I turned the heater on. After letting the truck idle for 10 minutes, it finally started to blow hot air like normal. Does anybody know what just happened to me and why?????

dodgediesel

Has anyone had the same problems out there in DTR LAND??

Mopar1973man

Well the best idea I've got is...

When you were racing the engine started to heat up and expand the coolant out. After were done the coolant start to contract and draw back form the bottle that overflowed. But since the engine was low on coolant it could provide flow for the heater which requires a full coolant system.

So now you might look at reasons why the truck got hot...

Theromstat, Weak or Poor condition coolant, plugged up radiator (exteernal and internal), excessive pyro temps, low boost pressure, bad clutch fan, blown head gasket... I can keep going...

dodgediesel

The truck never got hot until after the pull. I thought I blew a rad hose because the truck temp guage started to rise alot and then the cold air started to blow out the heater vents. I opened the hood and the hoses were rock hard and there was antifreeze sprayed out from the overflow bottle. There is no increase in oil level in the engine and I don't see any white smoke. I have head studs so I don't think it is a head gasket. This is such a wierd problem because it is running like normal this morning. The engine has 10k on it with a new t stat, flushed out and pressure tested rad, and a new fan belt. It's like some of my boost pressure got into the rad system.(I know that sounds stupid, but that's what it seems like but with no headgasket symptoms)

Mopar1973man

What was your pyro temps like during the race???

Was you fan locking up???

dodgediesel

My pyro temps hit 1300 max and when I opened my hood to check out the situation, my fan was in motion. This problems is a head scratcher for me...

RustyJC

Colder, denser air means higher peak firing pressures. Your symptoms sound like a classic situation where the head lifted just enough to allow combustion pressure into the cooling system. This blows the coolant into the overflow bottle and air-locks the engine (and heater) with combustion gas; thus, the gurgling and loss of heater output.

Maybe the head gasket resealed enough at the end of the run to not have a coolant-in-oil or oil-in-coolant situation under normal driving, but if it happened this run, why would it not happen again the next hard pass?

Rusty

dodgediesel

Are you serious??? I thought these ARP headstuds were the way to go???This engine is newer and both the head and block were machined. This engine is not ready for the BD Twins!!! How do I fix this problem and stop it from happening again?????

v8440

Retorque the studs. If it keeps happening, it's time to pull the head and check the gasket carefully. I think Rusty may have hit that one on the head.

TorqueJunkie

I had that happen on my gasser turbo charged race car. Under high boost conditions it was lifting the heads and the boost/combustion was filling the coolant passages with to much positive pressure and blowing it out of my radiator cap. As soon as the boosted condition goes away the head re-seals instantly, that is why you are not getting any coolant in the oil or a constant over pressurized coolant system. Re-torque your heads and keep an eye on it and you might be good. It chewed up a set of 160.00 head gaskets on my car and I had to have the heads resurfaced and new gaskets. But I did it a couple of times trying to trouble shoot the problem.

RustyJC

Did you have the head or block cut for o-rings or fire rings? That's their purpose - to seal against leaks of high combustion pressure.

Rusty

dodgediesel

No because everyone says you only need studs for BD Twins...

TORQUE

How much boost were you running? Sounds like a head gasket issue seeing as it is a new engine, do a retorque hopefully it will reseal without having to replace it.