Losing/using coolant.

[thesocalexplorer]

Thanks for the reply @Brian_B . I am going to have to be spending a bit more time monitoring this. I have 1 year left on my warranty so I want to get it dialed in before it expires if there is some kind of issue. I will start taking some photos with the phone and a ruler every few weeks.

This is my first 2.7 and I was reading it does have some issues coolant wise, just curious as to what others have seen on other broncos.

I've been tracking my coolant top offs so far. I've had to add approx. 20 oz. over the course of 20k miles, about 3-5 oz. every oil change (5.5k miles) on average.

My last top off was 2k miles ago and have seen no loss, but I also added UV dye to my system to help pinpoint any glaring leaks, none to be seen. Engine runs extremely well too.

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[Ogre]

This is most common in high temperature areas, it's natural evaporation when the system isn't hot enough to seal the cap (at operating pressure) but it's hot enough to evaporate the water in the Coolant mixture. That's why some people see the loss even out after awhile. If they do a Coolant flush it'll gradually go through the same process.

The Coolant is designed so it won't cake up on high heat applications like turbo cooling. So that's not an issue unless something is wrong and you would hear it in the turbo bearings long before. If it was leaking into the cylinders it would cause multiple faults that would be apparent, o2 sensors, catalytic converter, white smoke, bubbles in the reservior, change in oil color. Head gasket leaks, which is what causes these issues and will blow your motor, are not hard to find 99% of the time. An EGR cooler leak can be more difficult to pinpoint but would eventually lead to the same faults. If suspected, and if it's cooled by Coolant (idk I'm a Diesel tech not a Ford tech) then it's easy to disconnect and look for the residue in the EGR cooler ports.

But research this before you bring it to your Ford techs attention. I'm just outlining worst case scenarios.

 

[thesocalexplorer]

This is most common in high temperature areas, it's natural evaporation when the system isn't hot enough to seal the cap (at operating pressure) but it's hot enough to evaporate the water in the Coolant mixture. That's why some people see the loss even out after awhile. If they do a Coolant flush it'll gradually go through the same process.

The Coolant is designed so it won't cake up on high heat applications like turbo cooling. So that's not an issue unless something is wrong and you would hear it in the turbo bearings long before. If it was leaking into the cylinders it would cause multiple faults that would be apparent, o2 sensors, catalytic converter, white smoke, bubbles in the reservior, change in oil color. Head gasket leaks, which is what causes these issues and will blow your motor, are not hard to find 99% of the time. An EGR cooler leak can be more difficult to pinpoint but would eventually lead to the same faults. If suspected, and if it's cooled by Coolant (idk I'm a Diesel tech not a Ford tech) then it's easy to disconnect and look for the residue in the EGR cooler ports.

But research this before you bring it to your Ford techs attention. I'm just outlining worst case scenarios.

From what I've read on the Ranger5g forum, looks like the 2.3 has an EGR cooler that occasionally fails internally, so could definitely be a possibility.

 

[NMLITCHFIELD]

I have a ‘22 2.7 with ~35,500. I went to get a CA smog check and the tech suggested I may have a blown head gasket and noted white smoke from the exhaust, exhaust detected in the coolant reservoir and the reservoir itself very low. The engine was running fine and there were no check engine light or codes.

I brought the vehicle into Ford and it passed the leak test (cold) and did not show signs of engine roughness, visible leaks, etc..

I ended up adding about 1 QT of coolant to bring it back to normal level. Since there was no visible or tested leaks, Ford recommended I continue to drive and monitor.

This thread has been helpful since it sounds like most folks are having an issue where the coolant is slowly leaking. I’m just curious if this is an inherent issue with this specific engine and normal or if there is a bigger problem.

 

[Jvandy50]

Have any of you guys saw smoke out of tail pipe intermittently? I know this sounds stupid but I have twice, but zero other times. Losing coolant at a slow pace. Running fine, zero codes, no leaks I see and I park in the same 3 places daily

 

[Jazer]

Anyone have any resolution? I just found my 40k mile 22 2.7 with an empty reservoir (cold) when warmed up it came back in a bit but still well below min line. I've topped it off but not sure what the loss rate is yet if at all. I have an appt in a few days to get it checked at the dealer. Not sure if the techs topped it off at last oil change or not.

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