Ok, so after about two months of hassle with getting my truck fixed after it got hit, and getting the motor rebuilt. I was supposed to get it back today. The motor is completely rebuilt, everything brand new, except the block, the radiator (which is only about 2 years old anyway), and a couple of things that are not cooling system related. However, when I drove away from the shop today, I got about 2 miles down the road and the truck was overheating again just like it did before I had the motor rebuilt. So I took it back to the guy and told him the deal and he is going to figure it out, but its got me curious...Anybody have any idea what would cause something like this?

Just for the curious that want to know why I got it rebuilt, once he took the motor apart, he found that it had a cracked head and a blown head gasket

 

Could be an air pocket. Modulars dont like air in the cooling system might need to be blead out. I would have rebuilt the whole engine unless it only had like 50k on it being a 98 and all..

 

Yea it had 190k

 

when they poored the antifreeze in the motor they probably filled it up and didnt let the motor run for more than a couple of minutes to make sure their are no leaks and running issues and they didnt run it long enough to let the thermostat open.

just a possibility.

 

Yea thats what I had thought, I'm only 19 so I still am living at home with the rents, so me and my dad had been troubleshooting on it before taking it to the shop and ruled out alot of things like air pockets and thermostat problems (atleast im hoping that putting a new one in would rule out it not working properly). Appareantly when they finished they took it on a 15 mile trip and it ran fine for them. The guy said its a possibility that its a sensor out of calibration causing the gauge to go nuts, only a possibility because all of the sensors are new now....who knows. I'm curious to hear what he finds out.

 

an out of wack sensor would have nothing to do with the head being cracked. the only ways i can think of this happening is you drive down the road and their wasnt enough coolant for the water pump to touch right away and eventually it was able to and it was room temp and hit the engine at 210+ degrees and cracked it. or it was just run hard but 2 miles wouldnt be enough.

 

I know the sensor has nothing to do with it, I had the motor rebuilt because the head was cracked and the gasket was blown, and it had 190k miles. So the shop that did the work was saying that when they put the new sensors in, there is a sensor that is like a bolt that goes into the block that is cooling system related, and he is saying it could be a little out of whack. Sorry if you misunderstood me.

 

So they kept the block but you got a new Crank, Rods, Pistons, Heads, valves, Springs, Cams, Timing Chains, Guides, Oil Pump, Bearings and Water Pump? Did you ever figure out what cracked the heads in the first place? Could it be a clogged 2 year old rad?

Regards

Jean Marc Chartier

 

Well, I thought he just re-machined the block and cleaned it up, but I was looking at the invoice and there is a charge on there for a "Ford 281 4.6 Longblock" . . .So I'll have to double check on that, but yea I was thinking the radiator could be part of the problem, even only being 2 years old.

 

clogged radiator makes sense.

 

I heard back from them today and I was told its a coolant leak. Which really sucks because when they say coolant leak Im guessing they mean inside the motor somewhere. I think this because when we had it running on Saturday at the shop looking at it, there was NOTHING leaking on the ground other than the A/C. Its supposed to be ready for pick-up tomorrow so I'll have the diagnosis haha.