walexa

Just happened about 15 minutes ago..........truck was fully warmed up, hard roll on in 4th, white smoke everywhere. The white smoke wasn't coming out the exhaust.......I believe it was antifreeze burning off the outside of the exhaust. Lost all heat inside truck. Limp it home a couple minutes away. Checked oil and it was black, not diluted with antifreeze. Check coolant and it was low from the quick loss.........add some antifreeze and it starts running out somewhere around the rear of the engine onto the transmission. Is this a head gasket failure? What else could it be if not?

Waylan

Shovelhead

Check for a leak at a horizontal crack on the passenger side of the block and a 53 stamped into the driver's side.
If so, and you're under 100,000 miles, a call to Cummins is in your future.

If it simply a head gasket, that still bites, but it's a less expen$ive fix.

walexa

I have checked for the #53 before and couldn't find anything. This leak is at the very rear of the engine and I can't see back there very good. It POURS antifreeze down onto the transmission bell housing. Fixing to go look at it again.

Crimedog

My guess is a HG failure. I thought that only the 24v trucks had the 53 block? You could get some UV dye and this should lead you to the source of the leak.

wannadiesel

There is a freeze plug back there.

Shovelhead

Wanna has a good point.

walexa

I just got back from looking........it looks like wannadiesel is on the money. Looking from under the truck on the driver's side, there is a hole where the freeze plug looks to have come completely out.

1. What would cause the freeze plug to come out like that?

2. Here's what I'm scared of.........how to I get one back in there? Does the tranny have to come out?

RCW

Stop by a truck repair facility and get your hands on a copper quick fix plug the size needed. It has a bolt in the center and is a cup shaped copper disk the size of the hole.

Then clean up the hole, and insert the new plug and tighten the bolt. You may have to loosen the cab mounts and lift the cab a bit, but should be able to do the repair without pulling the transmission.

The OEM steel plugs generally fail because of old antifreeze.

walexa

The cooling system had been neglected when I got the truck........it had 95k on the clock and was 6 years old.......I assume it had the original coolant in it. I flushed and changed it out as soon as I got it and haven't had any problems until this. I had noticed that my coolant level in my overflow bottle would very very slowly drop, but I wasn't sure where it was going. Never a sign of it in the oil, and I didn't have any hoses or the radiator leaking. I am betting it was leaking out that old freeze plug. Does anybody know the size of the freeze plug on the back of the engine? Thanks for the replies so far. I have to get a rental car tomorrow until I can fix the truck.

Waylan