2013 ISX 15 rapid sudden coolant consumption

[Nerv]

Last week had truck doing a regular run it does, super light load 20,000lbs, next day when truck was turned on in the morning there was a small cloud of white smoke come out and continued out the day, no codes or any other troubles, about 10 hours later got a low coolant light, checked the coolant and it was low, opened the cap and it shot back up to normal level, oil was good and clean normal level. Made it about another 350km until the coolant light came back on, noticed it was about 3 litres low and coming out the overflow, shut truck off filled it and truck wouldnt start. Right away I thought it was something serious, called a tow truck and towed it into town as we were in the middle of the mountains.

Had someone come out and bar the engine over, was freely spinning, cleaned up battery terminals of slight corrosion and truck fired right up. Kept firing up and no other running issues. Truck sat for a week and was still a 30 min drive and 2 hour ferry back home. Had to fill 3 jugs of coolant after the tow, which was very odd, I right away assumed the EGR cooler, drove it to ferry, no lights came on. Had to shut it off , 2 hours later wont start again ON the ferry. Now Im panicking as the ferry is going to sail back if i cant get the truck started. Engine still freely spinning, still thinking battery is bad as well, put it on a charger and it fired up, drove it 1km to closest shop, shut it off.

Heres where the story takes a bad turn and whether im to blame or not I just couldnt leave it where I didnt trust anyone to touch it, either way now the engine wont turn over, right at this time now the oil is overfilled and brown… and Im beating myself up for not leaving it where it was, or finding someone in that area to work on it..

Background on the truck, demaned. File was fixed on here, wasnt horrible but still needed work, truck had a slight rough idle at times but if engine was idled up like I always do then it was smooth out. Engine was rebuilt under warranty at 350,000KM, currently milage is 995,000miles. Yes, I know it is in its old age, and I was already doing research on in-framing it in the next couple of months. In the last 3 years, NO coolant consumption not even 1 litre, oil changed every 10k miles, even at this interval the oil still had a slight golden hue to it. Average engine load throughout lifetime was exactly 20%. Driver abuse history shows no difference from before, no over speed events, coolant temps were same as before this happened, so my question is how does this happened quite rapidly and suddenly without an overheating over spooling event? Just old age im guessing? Please let me know best options at this point and what to do, this truck is obviously used to feed my family, and I need to make sure its fixed properly. I never neglect it and try to my best to avoid mistakes, and im really beating myself up for driving it, note to others if any kind of coolant consumption, we always want to not think of the worst case scenario, and that was me.

[marek4792]

Sounds like the block was never counterbored and possibly aftermarket head was used? Air compressor and egr cooler if equipped can push coolant out too. Pull your file and send it to Rawze to double check their work.

[Nerv]

Rawze did check the file, the engine was rebuilt at 350,000km, so it made 800,000miles until this just happened.

[tree98]

Well honestly 800,000 mi. isn't a terrible life span for an ISX. Tear it down and rebuild it properly to go another 800k to a million.

[Nerv]

Update, finally got it in my shop and had time to look it over rather then listening to someone else, opened hose clamp on the EGR cooler, started dripping coolant out, completely wet inside, took a bit longer breaker bar and slowly kept pressure on it, motor started to turn completely freely… whats my next steps?

[Rawze]

FIRST AND FOREMOST!!!!.... As soon as it started having coolant loss .... SOMEONE SHOULD HAVE FOUND OUT WHY!!!... instead of driving it around like a fool!.

At this point, ... and the FIRST TIME YOU SAW IT LEAKING!!!.....you should have ...

== Pressurized the coolant system to 20 PSI and let it sit over night. FIX ALL external leaks that are found, and SINCE YOU SAW WHITE SMOKE>>>>>>WHICH IS VERY SERIOUS in the context of colant leaks... you should have ...

>> yes... pulled the exhaust piping off the egr cooler on the back side and check for coolant pooling up.
>>AND YES ... if your coolant levels were dropping several inches in the tank and/or being pushed out of the overflow .. considering the age of the engine... DROPPED THE OIL PAN AS WELL AND LOOKED FOR COOLANT SEEPING AROUND ANY PISTON RINGS on each compression stroke for each cylinder while someone turns the engine by hand, while the coolant system was still pressurized at 20 psi.. after sitting all night.

That is how you prevent it putting you on the side of the road (or stuck on a ferry in your case) .. or worse yet,.. it suddenly hydra-locking at some point and bending a connection rod, or putting a piston right thru the side of the engine block.

(so what now) ...
Before you go around making assumptions like a fool (or letting your obviously under-trained mechanic guess like an idiot) ... DO THE troubleshooting (including pulling the pan, etc.) steps that I mentioned above before making costly, blind man decisions. FIX the egr coolar leaking issue if it is indeed seeping.. and ALSO do the test for the pistons with pan off it.. then go from there.

IF IT NEEDS AN INFRAME>>>> here is how it should be done to guarantee another million miles if that is what needs to happen...
ref: https://rawze.com/forums/showthread.php?...6#pid70606

Good luck however on finding a mechanic that is actually willing to do the things mentioned in that post, as most of them are too da%mn in a hurry, speed-gun happy, downright lazy, or too arrogant in their ways to do anything beyond the minimum these days.

[Nerv]

I wish i was there to do the mentioned, this happened in middle if the mountains with a driver, i towed the truck, got it looked at by obviously some idiot, 2 idiots that is, having it in my shop even with what happened is better than leaving it in the hands of those others, im pulling the pan today and will pressure the system overnight to be certain.