gogmorgo Posted October 10, 2013 Share Posted October 10, 2013 On the way to school this morning I pressed the gas to accelerate to pass someone on the highway, and my MJ backfired a couple times then shut off. As I was coasting over to the side of the road I started to smell antifreeze. I stop, get out, and there's coolant literally everywhere. All over the engine bay, on top of the hood, on the windsheild, and down both sides of the truck. It took me a long time to figure out where it was came from (no hoses off, all freeze plugs intact...) eventually I fired it back up to see if it would start (it took a while, acting like I'd run out of gas) and discovered that one of the heater hoses had a 3/4" split about an inch above two inches above the water pump, and was spraying onto the rad fan. So my question is, did the truck shut off due to lack of coolant pressure or did the coolant short something out? I'm not blowing white exhaust, there's no coolant in the oil, and there were no warning lights or codes. The truck wasn't even overheating. (if anything it was still cold) I cut the end off the heater hose and clamped it back down, topped up the coolant, and it's running fine now. Should I be looking into this more? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockfrog Posted October 10, 2013 Share Posted October 10, 2013 there is only a temp sensor at the back of the head for the guage, and a coolant temp sensor for the PCM in the thermostat housing ... if you lost the coolant at that point, either something shorted or the PCM saw the colder temp as a result of no flow and flooded the motor out going too rich, ar a hotter temp and leaned it out too much ... the backfiring suggests one or the other? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOrnbrod Posted October 10, 2013 Share Posted October 10, 2013 The split hose probably sprayed slick coolant on the serp belt and caused slippage at the harmonic balancer. Engine trying to rev, belt slipping badly = backfire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gogmorgo Posted October 10, 2013 Author Share Posted October 10, 2013 there is only a temp sensor at the back of the head for the guage, and a coolant temp sensor for the PCM in the thermostat housing ... if you lost the coolant at that point, either something shorted or the PCM saw the colder temp as a result of no flow and flooded the motor out going too rich, ar a hotter temp and leaned it out too much ... the backfiring suggests one or the other? Well, it wasn't quite up to temp, it had maybe been running for five minutes when it happened. The split hose probably sprayed slick coolant on the serp belt and caused slippage at the harmonic balancer. Engine trying to rev, belt slipping badly = backfire. But the serp belt doesn't drive anything crucial to staying running, does it? The engine cut out after running like $#!&, making no power for ten seconds. I suppose the alternator could do some weird stuff when it's stopped suddenly, but that would correct itself and not kill the engine, right? But there was definitely coolant on the belt... like I said, it was pretty well everywhere. Plus it was still squealing a bit when I got to school, an hour late for a fairly important test. I'm leaning towards a short somewhere... the entire engine bay got a pretty good bath, and there was a cc or so of coolant in most of the spark plug wells. "Topping up" involved almost a gallon. I'd still expect a short that disabled the engine to at least blow a fuse, or even throw a code, but everything checks out... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ftpiercecracker1 Posted October 12, 2013 Share Posted October 12, 2013 The split hose probably sprayed slick coolant on the serp belt and caused slippage at the harmonic balancer. Engine trying to rev, belt slipping badly = backfire. But the serp belt doesn't drive anything crucial to staying running, does it? The engine cut out after running like $#!&, making no power for ten seconds. I suppose the alternator could do some weird stuff when it's stopped suddenly, but that would correct itself and not kill the engine, right? My thoughts exactly, are you sure you have your thinkin cap on straight hornbrod? :hmm: I'm leaning towards a short somewhere... the entire engine bay got a pretty good bath, and there was a cc or so of coolant in most of the spark plug wells. "Topping up" involved almost a gallon. I'd still expect a short that disabled the engine to at least blow a fuse, or even throw a code, but everything checks out... With all that coolant going everywhere a short would seem to be inevitable and almost without doubt the answer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
87manche1 Posted October 12, 2013 Share Posted October 12, 2013 My old 97 had a bad clip on the thermostat sensor. If it came loose it would run like poo and then stall out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ftpiercecracker1 Posted October 13, 2013 Share Posted October 13, 2013 Not sure how that has anything to do with the OPs original issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockfrog Posted October 13, 2013 Share Posted October 13, 2013 Well, gonna guess that he's pointing out that if the sensor on the Thermostat housing (coincidently, right next to the blown hose) gets messed up in some way (say by a shower iof coolant for example) ... the engine will likely run like poo and stall out? Kinda makes it relevant I 'spose ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gogmorgo Posted October 13, 2013 Author Share Posted October 13, 2013 Yeah, although whatever it was seems to have fixed itself, or my horking around on things getting that clamp off and then back on again with zero tools fixed it, cause it was running fine when I was done with the fix. I've also just discovered that the nasty rattle that I've been associating with the exhaust banging around is actually a cracked flexplate. While not likely a cause in and of itself, I can see that messing things up since the cps reads off of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParadiseMJ Posted October 13, 2013 Share Posted October 13, 2013 More likely the coolant spewing all over the engine bay FUBAR'd the TPS or the distributor, got everything wet and screwed everything up electronically The computer (ECU,PCM, ECM whatever) does not shut the engine down when it sees cooler temperature...or a lapse in temperature related computer logic. The TPS does not like getting wet, nor does the distributor. Just those two things will kill the engine. The coolant sensor "coincidentally" being next to the leak is just that...coincidental. A messed up coolant sensor is not going to shut the motor down. A coolant soaked TPS will. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zagscrawler Posted October 13, 2013 Share Posted October 13, 2013 I agree with paradise here, most likely it soaked the distributer or ignition wires.. caused some misfire or lack of fire (hence the backfire) and croaked till things could dry a tad. Good luck and if its not broke (NOW) don't fix it lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
87manche1 Posted October 13, 2013 Share Posted October 13, 2013 Temp sensors are resistant u take away resistance and u have full voltage to the other wire and computer goes nuts trying to keep the engine running.. Sorry been roofing my house the last two days I'm a little tired. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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