horsecrazy1981

Ok, so I have a '94 3500 Crew Cab Dually. It has a diesel engine. This is my first diesel truck and I just purchased it in November 2009. I am still learning about diesels, so cut me some slack if I seem to have a lack of knowledge. It has a rebuilt engine in it. I have been taking it to my local GM dealer to have work done on it. They don't seem to want to work on it much because of the rebuilt engine. Anyway, back around December, the radiator had a small leak in it at the core, so we had to have it replaced with a brand new radiator. The new radiator was working fine until today. We check the fluids in the truck daily so that we can stay on top of everything. I had just finished checking the fluid levels at the gas station after my husband filled it up. Well we left, everything was fine. When we started climbing up a hill, the engine temp suddenly flared up real fast and the "check gauges" light came on. After about 3 seconds, the temp went back down to normal, but then the "low coolant" light came on. I went ahead and drove it home since we were only 5 minutes away. When I got home, I looked toward the radiator and coolant had come out of the overflow and was all over the motor and dripping down the frame and tire and the radiator looked empty. After a minute or two of cooling off, I checked the radiator again, and it had coolant in it this time, a little below the fill line. I didn't add any more, but I did clean the coolant off of the truck. I guess my question is, does this happen often? Is there an easy fix? Do I need to take my truck back to the GM dealership?

maxxman04

truck does need to be checked out. the temp should remain constant at normal reading, not overheat. it could be simply a bad thermostat (cheap to replace) or it could be air trapped in the cooling system. a good shop should be able to determine.

swift81

Have the shop pressure test the cooling system. Don't like to be the one to deliver bad news but those 6.5l engines are notorious for having cylinder head problems as well, and if they are not rebuilt properly ( which is most of the time ) then they will overheat and lots of other bad things. I have done alot of those engines and it can be fixed. Hopefully it is something small though like the thermostat

horsecrazy1981

Thanks for replying to my post. We took the truck to my cousin's shop in NC and he did pressure test the cooling system. It was running at nearly double the pressure that it was built for. He said whoever rebuilt the engine didn't do a very good job, and he put in a new crate motor for us, as well as replaced the other worn parts. Just about everything in the front end is new now. It now runs great, no smoke, no shaking, and no overheating. No more problems for a while we hope.