For any that do not know of my woes, I'm fearing I have a head gasket issue. First, I made sure my cap was good. Yup, releases at 16PSI. So, I got a pressure gauge and hooked it into my coolant system. When I start the truck up, absolutely nothing, so definitely not a large leak. I let it get to operating temp and check the gauge. Only 10PSI. So far, so good. I drive it about three miles, pop the hood and look (because I didn't have a long enough piece of hose laying around to run through the firewall) and it's right at 16PSI. Won't go any higher obviously because the cap is releasing pressure. So, the hose IS long enough to close the hood to the first latch and have it running just inside my window. When I drive around like this and watch it, there are no pressure spikes or even increases at all when I go WOT. I even sat at a stop and powerbraked it until I was up to about 8 PSI and just sat there for a bit. Zero increase in pressure in cooling system. It's only a gradual increase with no spiking whatsoever.
So out I got and get the exhaust gas test kit. I hook it all up, etc etc and blue fluid does NOT turn yellow. However, plenty of bubbles were going through the fluid even without me squeezing the little suction bulb. Bubbles tell me it's definitely producing gas inside the cooling system somehow. Could it be a hot spot and coolant is boiling because there is no coolant flow? Nope, checked that and my radiator gets hot, so the thermostat is working, and I can visually see coolant flow back into the degas bottle. BTW, AFTER I did the test I read a little further in the directions and it says it will not work with diesel engines. I guess diesel doesn't produce the same amount of whatever gas it detects as gasoline does. lol
Anyway, for those who have been here, does this indicate a headgasket leak? If it does, I'm thinking it must be pretty darn small to not show any spiking when engine is revved up and producing boost. If it's not indicative of a gasket leak, then what is it?
So out I got and get the exhaust gas test kit. I hook it all up, etc etc and blue fluid does NOT turn yellow. However, plenty of bubbles were going through the fluid even without me squeezing the little suction bulb. Bubbles tell me it's definitely producing gas inside the cooling system somehow. Could it be a hot spot and coolant is boiling because there is no coolant flow? Nope, checked that and my radiator gets hot, so the thermostat is working, and I can visually see coolant flow back into the degas bottle. BTW, AFTER I did the test I read a little further in the directions and it says it will not work with diesel engines. I guess diesel doesn't produce the same amount of whatever gas it detects as gasoline does. lol
Anyway, for those who have been here, does this indicate a headgasket leak? If it does, I'm thinking it must be pretty darn small to not show any spiking when engine is revved up and producing boost. If it's not indicative of a gasket leak, then what is it?
