Engine coolant turned to slush! Wont stay running.?
I just bought a bad lifted1980 F250! (Carbureted) With a 351 that’s worked! It was running great until I had a small electrical problem. Before I got around to fixing it the weather got really cold about 17*. Some coolant leaked out of the bottom end. It was slush that leaked out, and slush in the hoses. It warmed up a couple days later, and I got it to turn over again. Now it starts, but only when I have the throttle all the way to the floor. Once I take my foot of it shuts down, and sometimes back fires. It also shoots flames out of the carb, and just dosnt sound right. IM FREAKING OUT!
Is this just a carb- fuel problem or did it crack the block.
I spent all my savings on this new toy please Help me! If you don’t think its a cracked block what do u think it is. (Choke, fuel pump?) Etc.
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Tags: coolant, couple days, cracked block, electrical problem, flames, fuel pump, hoses, new toy, slush, weather
February 7th, 2010 at 7:03 pm
Bad move, revving that truck when you KNOW something is wrong. Better think twice about doing that again until you find out what the problem is.
Start it up, let it idle until it begins heating up again and look at the tailpipe for white smoke and the smell of coolant. If those two things are present, you’re screwed. You have a bad head gasket, or worse.
If not, then you have to get that truck to a warm place and let the water in the system thaw some. Don’t drive it, or your luck may run out!
You may even get luckier and have enough anti-freeze in the truck to do this next step without needing to thaw the truck out…
Go to the auto parts store. Get a coolant flush kit and a gallon of anti-freeze.
Cut the heater hose that goes FROM your heater. That’s the one that doesn’t come from your water pump. You will have two attachments in your flush kit. One attaches to the hose you cut. The other connection fits to the top of your radiator cap hole. Connect the spliced connection to your heater hose. Remove the radiator cap and attach the other connection.
Flush the system with a garden hose that you will attach to the spliced connection you made on the heater hose. It’s advisable to flush the radiator while the truck is running to get the remainder of the slush out.
Find another one gallon bottle and measure half of the anti-freeze you bought into each bottle. Top off both bottles with water.
You have just made two gallons of 50-50 mix, good enough for 20 below.
After you flushed your system and no longer see slush or green anti-freeze coming out of the top of the radiator cap connection, disconnect the garden hose from the connection you made on the heater hose and leave that hose connection cap off.
Begin adding the anti-freeze to the radiator after you remove that connection. Once you see the green coolant coming out of the open cap on the heater hose splice you made, congratulations! You just flushed out your system and your worries are over! (unless there are bad radiator hoses, a leaking radiator, etc, etc…)
Lotsa luck!
February 7th, 2010 at 7:03 pm
well sorry sounds like too much water in coolant you got a cracked block if leaking out of block there ’s water in side of block walls get it checked out buts its cracked if you ask me same when it happened to me it spits and sputters water in piston you need a rebuilt 351 try eBay good news its a easy change out good luck P’s mack sure in future that its mostly coolant in radiator good luck you can find 351/w rebuilt for less then $1000.00some I see that look OK are under $450.00 the flames are from the gas siting on top of water in pistons and it shoots back threw manifoldand out carb must get rid of persure some how just enough air in pistons to spark not much and if you can get runing its not all pistons sound s about right ‘right
February 7th, 2010 at 7:03 pm
I’m guessing you have a vacuum leak. When the choke and throttle is closed, the engine will pull air from all vacuum lines, and if there’s a leak, it will pull air through the lines, not gas out of the carb. I’d start by looking for any cracked vacuum and fuel vapor lines and replacing them. You might need to try starting the engine with a clamp on vacuum lines to the HVAC system in the cab to troubleshoot where the leak is. I’m not sure by your description if you tried to fix the electrical problem before it had starting problems, but if that’s the case, double check the firing order and timing, and pay attention to the rotation of the distributor rotor. Could it be possible the cold temps caused oil to gel or valve springs to not work correctly, and allow burning gas to escape through the intake? Maybe you need to check for compression?