7.3 ran dry

[johnbeck]

Hi. I need help with my 99 f250, 7.3. My wife was driving it until she smelled something hot, looked at the maxed temp gauge, parked a minute later. Something on the road put a hole in the radiator. I started the engine to drive it off the tow truck- sounds fine. What likely was melting to create the smell my wife smelt while driving at freeway speed, and what commonly gets damaged in an overheated 7.3? Secondly, there are dozens of replacement radiators- Which very good one(keeping truck long term), do I buy? Thanks guys! John Beck

[RT]

Spectra is a good brand and reasonably priced - $155 at RockAuto. You won't know what damage you've done until you've got it running again. If it doesn't overheat after you get it back together, you'll probably be ok. Usual damage is warped heads and blown head gaskets. If that happens, you'll button it back up, get on the road, and it will start blowing coolant out the degas bottle.

[wheelhopper]

My guess is that she was probably smelling the engine oil starting to cook. So make sure you change that out as well.

[johnbeck]

Just replaced the radiator(much thanks tousley Ford), put in water and ran. I shut off the engine and noticed it sucked down all the water in the reservoir bottle. Question: Did the water go into the heater core(I neglected to turn it on during the 5 minutes I ran the engine, or, could the water be sucked down into a cylinder? If I had a large socket I'd try to turn the crankshaft by hand. I read somewhere if there is a compression issue bubbles should be present in the coolant system when the engine is turned off. No bubbles, no water in the oil. Do I dare try to start it again, could the coolant have filled the voids in the system when the engine was turned off? Thanks

[RT]

Bump the starter a few times. If the engine keeps turning over, go ahead and start it. You'll have to top it off daily for a while until all the air is out.


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[johnbeck]

Thanks RT. I started the engine and drove 100 miles home, will keep an eye on fluids.