So the other night I was on the highway and some lady in front of my kept driving slow and switching lanes cutting me off. So I put my foot down on the gas and floored it past her. I saw a little liquid shoot out the side of my hood cover, but I figured I'd keep going. I got about 4 more miles, then I noticed my engine temp gauge going up, so I pulled over and let it cool for about 30 minutes. There was a ton of white steam/smoke coming out near the thermostat, but it did not appear to be the thermostat itself. I made it home without it overheating, but it was close. The day after I drove it to the shop to have it checked out. I would do it myself, but I just don't have the time right now.

The shop won't be able to look at it till Monday, so I am stuck anxiously waiting what may have gone wrong, and how much it will cost me.

The few symptoms I have since this happened:
-When I set the fan to high heat, it blows very cold air
-slight ticking sound I can hear that increased with speed
-It overheats about 10-15 minutes from a cold start doing street driving
-No fluid loss from my reservoir
-I checked the dip stick, and there is no milky color oil. It looks like perfectly clean oil. (Hoping it's not my head gasket blown)


Any ideas what may have gone wrong?

 

You blew a hose out most likely if you saw fluid at hood level.

With a hole in the system it wouldn't/couldn't push coolant into overflow or pull it back out.
The overflow system relies on a sealed engine system, with a leak, it ain't sealed no more.

Coolant in system is low and heater hoses are high............so no warm coolant is circulating thru the heater core

 

Would my coolant level be dropping though over time with a blown hose? My truck say overnight, and the coolant level had not dropped one bit.

 

If cracked hose was high then it wouldn't leak much, and if you saw coolant at hood level then it was high.
Cold system has 0 pressure, as coolant heats up it expands which creates pressure in the system then it would leak.

 

This makes sense, because everything up top had been sprayed with coolant. It will be pressure tested tomorrow, so once that is done, I'll report back.

 

They just called. It was a cracked thermostat housing. They are replacing that, the thermostat, and the sensors and gaskets. I got ****ed on the price, but I don't have the time or space to do it myself, so I just bent over and took it.

 

Not an uncommon issue with the 4.0l SOHC engines.

Parts are not cheap and most if not all have to come from Ford so.............

And it does take some time to do the replacement so shop time will be a few hours, probably 3-4 hours.
Good read here on what they have to do to replace housing: How To Replace the Upper and Lower Thermostat Housing on a Ford 4.0L V6 SOHC Engine

Plus new coolant and thermostat