[Montana Dodge]

OK so I got the Dak two weeks ago. Heat has been fine, even in about 10 or 11 degree mornings.

Today I changed the spark plugs. It runs beautiful now, getting better mileage around town already. But I went with the NGK 2262s, which are one heat range colder than stock.

Tonight I get the Dak warmed up take off to the grocery store, it is 20 or 21 degrees outside, and it is barely blowing WARM air. Certainly nothing I would call HOT. Temp gauge was in the normal operating range.

I looked under the hood, felt the top radiator hose and it was covered in anitfreeze on the bottom side. It has never leaked coolant before, and it wasn't leaking from any joints or dripping in the snow, etc.

However it was too dark to do a real evaluation, even with a good MagLight.

Any ideas?

 

[Little Blue Guy]

You gotta leak and lost enough coolant so none is circulating through the heater core...find leak, fix, refill with coolant, heat returns

 

[suprchgd99rango]

prolly didnt overheat cuz its so cold and ur moving so the radiator gets hit.

 

[Montana Dodge]

prolly didnt overheat cuz its so cold and ur moving so the radiator gets hit.

Couple things though. If you lose coolant, when will the temp gauge drop down to nothing? And also why is my reservoir tank still nearly full?

 

[Little Blue Guy]

Temp sensor is still measuring air in the cooling system. Overflow is full because coolant is being pushed in there and not being sucked back into the engine when it cools.

Might be just a bad radiator cap

 

[suprchgd99rango]

the temp guage will only drop to nothing when truck is off. the more coolant u lose the hotter the engine gets as it runs cuz theres nothing flowing thru it to cool it down.

 

[Montana Dodge]

the temp guage will only drop to nothing when truck is off. the more coolant u lose the hotter the engine gets as it runs cuz theres nothing flowing thru it to cool it down.

Not sure where the sensor is on these things, but I've seen it happen with my old Cummins. When I lost the coolant, it went from dropping to nothing (when there was no coolant by the sensor) then back up to normal when a gush of coolant made it to the sensor, then back down.

Also, not a very analytical approach, but they talk about it in NASCAR all the time, when a guy is having coolant trouble, then he radios in and says, "nevermind, the temp just dropped". Well it dropped because there is no coolant there to register the temp.

 

[Montana Dodge]

Might be just a bad radiator cap

That exactly the only place it was wet, under the cap. Guess I'll have to check it all out tomorrow in the light. I'm just wondering what changed in that hour when I was changing plugs, because it was working fine right before that when I ran into town.

 

[Little Blue Guy]

Buy a new cap...they are cheap enough.

We had 2 Dodge Ram trucks last year with bad caps....truck would sit and idle...then coolant would fill the overflow bottle and run out on floor...customer thought bad head gaskets.... I replaced the rad caps...problem solved.

 

[suprchgd99rango]

Buy a new cap...they are cheap enough.

We had 2 Dodge Ram trucks last year with bad caps....truck would sit and idle...then coolant would fill the overflow bottle and run out on floor...customer thought bad head gaskets.... I replaced the rad caps...problem solved.

dealer would have said it was headgaskets and done the cap and charger for the gaskets!

 

[Montana Dodge]

So I checked this morning, and the top radiator hose was full (at the cap). What's that tell us? The reservoir had gone down however so I topped it off.

 

[Montana Dodge]

Let me clarify. It blows warm air, not hot air. If it was out of coolant (which it is NOT), it would blow cold air.

This afternoon it was about 35 degrees, and it was blowing much warmer. Perhaps all it needs is some cardboard in front of the radiator. But it seemed to be blowing hot air perfectly fine before yesterday, in the same outside temps.

Is there anything I can do, or that needs to be done to it?

 

[Little Blue Guy]

What t-stat you got in there? 195*?

maybe it is just too cold to warm up the passing air over the heater core. Your coolant under the cap issue still bothers me...I say replace the cap. Maybe your heater core need flushing?

 

[Montana Dodge]

What t-stat you got in there? 195*?

maybe it is just too cold to warm up the passing air over the heater core. Your coolant under the cap issue still bothers me...I say replace the cap. Maybe your heater core need flushing?

Yeah, that is odd to me too. But I haven't found any other coolant anywhere since that one time. Perhaps the cap wasn't on tight or I hit it while changing plugs.

As far as I know, it is a stock T-stat. Nothing tells me it isn't.

How do you "flush" a heater core? I'm not sure if the coolant has ever been changed or flushed in this thing. I think it has. The other owners would have like transmission flushes and such done, but I know they had never changed the stock plugs. So somewhere in between those two maintainance schedules lies the truth and I don't know.

 

[Little Blue Guy]

Easiest way to flush core is to remove hoses that go to core from engine and use garden hose and flush core both directions until clear water runs out.

Ya might also change out yer t-stat while you got the system open

 

[Montana Dodge]

Easiest way to flush core is to remove hoses that go to core from engine and use garden hose and flush core both directions until clear water runs out.

Ya might also change out yer t-stat while you got the system open

Thanks, I'll see when I can get that done. Not easy to get a garden hose around here in the middle of winter. I think next weekend I'll be getting down to my In-Law's place and they have some garden hose faucets inside the garage.

Can it be done too hard, like too much pressure to where it would hurt something, or is there anything else I need to worry about?