Thermostat Failure!

[KansasArt]

On my home from work I greeted with this. I didn’t notice it until the alarm started beeping at me. In my defense I had just finished working a 6th 12 hour shift in a row. I was tired and not paying attention to the gauges. I was about 2 minutes from home so I turned on the heater and continued home.
When home gave it a quick look over. No obvious leaks and the radiator was gurgling and hissing from the coolant boiling. The upper hose was empty. No coolant in it. Ahh ha! No circulation of coolant! So I knew where to start checking when I got up.
Pulled the thermostat out and put it in a pot of boiling water. It didn’t open! That made me happy! It wasn’t the water pump!
Bought a new one and put it in the boiling water. Opened like it should. Installed it at topped off the coolant. One gallon in the radiator plus the over flow tank. Runs fine now. Hard to believe a $20 part failure almost took out the engine.

 

[Audiowriter]

Good save. Hopefully all is well.

 

[KansasArt]

One question for the collective, did the coolant get hot enough to warp the heads or hurt the head gaskets? It was in the 260’s when I got home. Or since it’s running fine all is good?

 

[Ken226]

One question for the collective, did the coolant get hot enough to warp the heads or hurt the head gaskets? It was in the 260’s when I got home. Or since it’s running fine all is good?

At those temps, you'll be lucky if it didn't. I start getting nervous if it hits 235*, and by 240* i'm pulling over even if i'm 50 feet from the driveway.

Over the next few weeks, check your coolant and oil every day and start saving up for new heads and gaskets. Look for the classic chocolate milkshake.

If oil and coolant are still nice and clean by November, you can celebrate by spending the money you saved on a bottle of Buffalo Trace.

 

[Wild one]

One question for the collective, did the coolant get hot enough to warp the heads or hurt the head gaskets? It was in the 260’s when I got home. Or since it’s running fine all is good?

You could buy one of these kits and check to see if you have exhaust gases in the coolant. It'll give you a heads up on whether you warped the heads or if you got lucky as hell and they're still good.

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[TC]

Most people dont even know the coolant, oil, tranny temps, oil pressure info is even available to view. Good job catching it... hopefully before any damage was done.

 

[KansasArt]

You could buy one of these kits and check to see if you have exhaust gases in the coolant. It'll give you a heads up on whether you warped the heads or if you got lucky as hell and they're still good.

Just ordered it. Supposed to be here tomorrow. Never knew such a thing existed. Appreciate the heads up!

 

[Wild one]

Just ordered it. Supposed to be here tomorrow. Never knew such a thing existed. Appreciate the heads up!

Hopefully the fluid stays blue for you,then you got lucky.

 

[Ken226]

Just ordered it. Supposed to be here tomorrow. Never knew such a thing existed. Appreciate the heads up!

Keep the kit for awhile after you test it. Test it again in a couple weeks.


I had a 2000 Dakota 4.7l V8 a long time ago. The situation you described above was the exact same situation I experienced one day on I-10 just before the freeway exit, even the same temps; about 260ish by the time I made it home.

The oil and coolant looked good, so I thought I had dodged a bullet.

Two weeks later I noticed it was running warmer than usual, so i checked the coolant, which looked fine. The oil though was chocolate milkshake.

My best guess as to why it took awhile to happen: Very small head gasket leak + got into the hotter days of summer= more pressure in the cooling system to push coolant through the very small leak.

 

[KansasArt]

Well, it’s been about a week since overheating. Oil looks great, no exhaust detected in the coolant, no puffs of white smoke from the exhaust. So far so good!

 

[EdGs]

Damn, what a scary story.

One thing you can do is, once your truck has sat a day or two and is completely cold, crack the oil drain plug loose, but DO NOT remove it.

Get a small container to place uner the truck, and loosen the drain plug just enough that it starts to drip. Watch the drips. If you have coolant in your oil, you will see it very quickly, usually within the first several drops, 30 seconds or less.

You can let it drip for a minute or so, if no coolant is seen, you should be ok.

 

[HEMIMANN]

How many miles on your engine when the stat failed?

 

[EagleChief]

How many miles on your engine when the stat failed?

I'm going to take a rough guess and say 92527.7 miles, give or take a couple.

 

[Batman335296]

Did you replace your thermostat with an OEM or aftermarket? If aftermarket, which one?