Ok you got me on this, or my husband (He heard me on this believe me all the way to the graduation..lol), Never said I was not without fault. I have not had a car break down on me in many years, I suppose I had this one coming..

 

Whenever you buy a used car remember this, if you didnt do it or pay to have it done then it never got done.
So that oil change that the dealer said they did...did you pay for it? No? Then it never got done.
Did you replace the coolant hoses? No? Then it never got done.
Get my point?
You can never assume the previous owner did anything other than put gas in it, no receipts...never got done.
All coolant hoses should be replaced every 100,000 miles along with the fan belt.

 

Point received, oil has been changed and fluids checked on a regular basis, new battery and changed out some fuses along with the radiator condensor fan, just to mention a few things. I just did not just put gas in it and drive it, although the previous owner did and I still have a small LOAN on this thing. So now here I sit paying for what once was someone elses problem, that is why I will not sell this to anyone else. Don't get me wrong I am not mad at your comments, I am mad at my stupidity. Thanks for the reminder for next time.

 

I didnt mean to sound preachy either, so we are good.

Now seriously, go buy a bottle of K-Seal - Permanent Coolant Leak Repair
Follow the directions on the bottle and that will buy you some time.
I have used it in my wifes Volvo and it works great.
Your truck should run fine after that, at least well enough and long enough for you to trade it in.

 

Hey. Is there a way to tell if the K-Seal has been used in my vehicle yet? I did buy it from a dealership so I do have worries.
It would be a nice tool to see if you do have bad issues, if you use it
and your problems go away, then the puzzle is solved right.
Gasket and crack are still up in the air on which.

 

I used K-Seal on my wife's Volvo, it worked GREAT for about 6 months, now the leak is back (only smaller) and we are just keeping the cooling system full until we can dump this POS, we are going to sell it as a "fixer upper".
Zero problems with it in the system, normal engine temps and all.
I dont know if the leak got bigger or if the K-Seal wore out or what.
Her radiator is leaking where the tank mates with the core, it is a plastic tank and aluminum core.
Would I use it in my truck?
Yes.
Would I expect a permanent fix?
No, but at least enough to get you by until you can fix it properly.
I would only use one bottle, if the leak came back (like hers did) I would not add another bottle.
It reacts with air so it does nothing but float around inside your cooling system, as long as you dont have air in the system you will be fine.
Since your truck is "new to you" I would plan on doing a coolant flush anyway because you have no idea what if when anything was ever done to your truck.

 

innzane:

These products contain "water glass" and usually some material to help plug the leak. In K-Seal that is finely ground copper. Others use aluminum powder or flakes, ground walnut shells, nano-particles, what ever is handy in the lab. You can see some of that floating in the coolant bottle sometimes. It can also coat the inside of hoses. See pix of water pump, and also a thermostat that was coated with water glass and trying to stick.

These should only be considered a band-aid-in-a-jar. It can also attack the engine in undesired ways, like what dealers did with vehicles traded in under the "cash for clunkers" program, adding something to sieze the engine. Here's some notes from wiki on that chemical (underlined for areas of interest):

Metal repair

Sodium silicate is used, along with magnesium silicate, in muffler repair and fitting paste. When dissolved in water, both sodium silicate, and magnesium silicate form a thick paste that is easy to apply. When the exhaust system of an internal combustion engine heats up to its operating temperature, the heat drives out all of the excess water from the paste. The silicate compounds that are left over have glass-like properties, making a temporary, brittle repair.

Sodium silicate can be used to seal leaks at the head gasket. A common use is when an aluminum alloy cylinder head engine is left sitting for extended periods or the coolant is not changed at proper intervals, electrolysis can "eat out" sections of the head causing the gasket to fail.

Rather than remove the cylinder head, "liquid glass" is poured into the radiator and allowed to circulate. The waterglass is injected via the radiator water into the hotspot at the engine. This technique works because at 100–105 °C the sodium silicate loses water molecules to form a very powerful sealant that will not re-melt below 810 °C.

A sodium silicate repair of a leaking head gasket can hold for up to two years and even longer in some cases. The effect will be almost instant, and steam from the radiator water will stop coming out the exhaust within minutes of application. This repair only works with water-to-cylinder or water-to-air applications and where the sodium silicate reaches the "conversion" temperature of 100–105 °C. Use in water-to-oil leaks will result in further, likely total, destruction of the engine as what amounts to grinding powder forms in the engine's oil.

Back to Savannah Buzz -

So if your HG is also allowing coolant into oil, that "repair" could dramatically reduce engine life. After use of this product you'ld want to flush engine coolant and oil. The part that sealed the leak will still be there in "glass" form, pretty inert; it is the quart of unused goop you want to get rid of.

As far as using stopz leekz as a diagnostic tool, a better one would be a combustion gas in coolant kit, about $50. It will sample hot coolant, and confirm exhaust gas is present. Does like 15 tests, so you can check out vehicles to be purchased, or as proof that a HG repair is holding.

 

I will do the test, I do not like the idea of using the temp fix. But sure I will try if this ends up being the problem. The sun is finally up so I am gonna go do some checking now.

 

Just because you sell this to a dealership does not mean you are not selling this to some unsespecting person. Someone will still end up with your problem whether you directly sell it to them or to the dealership. Someone will still get hurt in the end.

 

Why would anyone trade in a $1000 car?
You put it on Craig's List "needs radiator..."
And why is everyone afraid of their own shadow?
Do you guys ever leave the house? Or do you just sit in you moms dark basement searching for crap on the internet?
My dad is that way, he just sits in his house watching the Republican Propaganda channel (Fox"news"), he leaves his house once a week and thats to get groceries.
When it comes to his Civic, if its not the dealer then it will destroy his car before he leaves the parking lot.