Hi
Just bought a truck in Texas and drove it home yesterday!
2009, lariat, 4x4. If i taped the odometer, and you drove it you would think it had only 50-60K miles on it, HONEST, drives like new, better then my 2011 chev 1/2 4x4 with 73K on it that I just sold!

motor sounded like new, no misses, etc.
The kicker, it has 240K on it! but looks and drives like new. Only 1 owner so you know it was taken care of to be in this condition. (bought from dealer, not the owner)

Dealer put a brand new radiator and thermostat in it before I got there (Tuesday) because of a very small leak in the corner of the radiator rather then fixing the old one.

Got 100 miles from home, and the wrench light came on, and said on dash POWER DOWN>

pulled over, 2 1/2 gal of antifreeze to bring back up to norm. ( figured it was coolant, as I came down the ramp, turned on the heater, no heat).

Every time I stopped I would check for any type of leak. NOTHING. I had about 1100 miles on my drive at this time.

Got home ok, this morning, added another 1/2 gallon of freeze!

drove to town, pulled out of the auto parts store, and the truck shuttered and dumped white smoke for about 1 minute. cleaned up.

3 hours later drove to my friends house, when I left, dumped white smoke again. (low on freeze again!)

So, I felt the upper radiator line cold and warm, seemed to get harder when hot.
so I figure I am in for head gaskets, right??d When not blowing white smoke runs awesome! and NO Check engine lights came on when this happens or shows any know.'

Any suggestions??

Thanks
Mike

 

It sounds like the head gaskets are on the way out.
But with the top radiator hose being warm and cold, i'm wondering if the new thermostat is faulty or sticking.
Do you still have a warranty on the truck?

 

+1 on headgaskets not much else would lose coolant in that manner that fast egr cooler wouldn't use that much coolant make sure you get some head studs oem or victor reinz gaskets and a set of big dog o ringed cylinder heads from powerstrokehelp .com otherwise youll have problems later on if u skimp on the heads.