collasped upper and lower raditor hoses!

First of all, I just wanted to say what a great site! after lurking in the background, I had noticed that a person can get some really good car advice here. So I joined.

I purchased a 1995 F-150 last summer for my small business and man has it worked hard for me with out fail, But as it got colder out I noticed that it didnt have a thermostat installed in it. Upon purchase a newly rebuilt motor(351) was installed and a new raditor. I installed new hoses and just recently a thermostat(185 F)...HEAT...thank god. A few days later there was no heat, so first I checked out fluid levels...wow it was half a gallon low, What!, ok so I checked the hose connections..all good, how bout the thermostat..No leak..all good...Hmmm...how bout the raditor cap?.. It was new when the raditor was installed maybe six months ago. I've even cleaned out the overflow tank and made sure the hoses werent kinked or broken...Its all good

I'll fill up the raditor and watch the hoses slowly collaspe as it warms up. I loosened up the raditor cap some and bang they rise up..cool, but wheres the fluid going, No leaks under the truck, no water in oil or oil in water.

All I can think of is checking to see if the belt is on with enuff tension and on in the correct direction. Should I try a new thermostat with lower tempature. Is my fluid boiling off.......

Did ford have an alternate direction of water pump impellers on certain blocks.

Any and all advise is really appreciated

Your radiator cap is either bad or is unsuitable for this radiator. Almost all rad caps have a spring-loaded drop valve in them. This valve is designed to open when the cooling system achieves negative pressure. This happens usually when engines cool down after use..... usually not when warming up.

In a closed system, the open drop valve will suck up coolant through a hose from the coolant recovery tank. In an open system, it simply sucks air.

If the valve is stuck closed or isn't there at all, the hoses will collapse instead.

As for the coolant loss.... if it really is being lost, the coolant is going somewhere. If its not in any oil and is not leaking, then it's being burned. Do you have LOTS of white smoke out the exhaust?

Sometimes, its possible for someone to not fill/bleed the cooling system properly, leaving air pockets at the top of the engine. As the engine is run, the air works itself to the top of the radiator, so you see what looks like a coolant loss.

Imo fill the radiator, get a new radiator cap that's suitable for the radiator itself and drive it for a day or two. Keep an eye on the coolant level and see it it drops any more.

Thanks for the advise, I'll try that, But when I replaced the raditor, I replaced the cap at the same time.

The Haynes mannual did mention in section 3 of chapter 3 that you should never drive a ford without a thermostat...WHY?, because "The computer may stay in open loop and emissions and fuel economy will suffer"...wow..ok...can a computer be re-set?

To answer you question on whether or not my truck smoked...no

Thanks for the quick responce

1) Disconnect the battery.
2) touch the positive cable to ground.
3) Connect the battery back up.

This will reset the computers & control modules to a known state.

Did you use green or orange?
Did you use the 50/50 mix, or 50% coolant with 50% tap water?

Thanks for the tip...I'm gonna try that when I replace the cap tomorrow.

I did use a premix antifreeze(green), idiot proof..hahaha...well maybe...lol

Well i've taken all advice in and installed another new cap on the raditor, grounded out the positive battery cable and added more antifreeze,.....

And now its running like a champ...I dont know if its the cap or grounding out the positive cable to reset the computer.

I'll probably keep my eye on it all, just to make sure, Thanks all for your advice


Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!