Losing antifreeze Or burning it

[Sloboatsho]

I have a 2011 sho that I have owned for about a year now. I'm goin to start doing mods, but when I was in Illinois for a week in December the heat stop working. I live in south Florida so heat is not used very often. So I found that the car was low on antifreeze. I checked the oil and its not there I know it's not leaking it so the only other thing I can think of is that it's burning it. Has anyone else experience this? The car has a warranty but you guys know how that works. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[Sloboatsho]

Thought I'd add the car has 65k on it

 

[SHOdded]

Welcome aboard, Sloboatsho! Did you buy your SHO CPO? What kind of warranty does it have?

Quite possible the SHO was already low on coolant when you got it. How low exactly? Still between the COLD FULL marks? No coolant smell? Then you might be OK. I would fill it up with Motorcraft coolant (the one specific to your MY SHO, as the specs changed over the years; should be either Specialty Green or Specialty Orange), and keep an eye on the level. Might need a couple of small topups before it settles.

If you still see a large drop in coolant level, it is possible there is a leak from the water pump. Those are hard to spot, and take a while to manifest. Could also have leaks in the water jacket around the turbos, but really haven't heard of this particular problem so far. Ditto on head gaskets and radiator hoses.

 

[Sloboatsho]

Thanks for the reply. The car is a CPO And it has 100,000 mile drivetrain warranty and the warrantee up to 75,000 miles that the Ford dealership sold to me I don't think it's a premium care plan. I will top it off and see what happen. Thanks again

 

[Sloboatsho]

I'm kind of mad about it too cause I just bought downpipe's, 3 barmap, 160 thermostat and a unleashed tune

 

[SHOdded]

Well, a little patience will pay off. You will likely lose some coolant doing the TStat swap, so it is better to check the coolant level is not mysteriously dropping after it is topped off and before the mods are put on You got the 160 Tstat from Livernois? Unleashed sells only the 170.

 

[Sloboatsho]

Yea. I already had the sct tuner and livernois no longer tunes on sct and I read good things about torrie. I took it to the track and ran a 13.40 at 103 on its first pass only got to run it once cause it rained but I thought it was good ****** off a new Camaro ss cause I beat him

 

[SHOdded]

HEADLINE: "Carrier outruns jet fighter"

 

[Pintony]

I have a 2011 sho that I have owned for about a year now. I'm goin to start doing mods, but when I was in Illinois for a week in December the heat stop working. I live in south Florida so heat is not used very often. So I found that the car was low on antifreeze. I checked the oil and its not there I know it's not leaking it so the only other thing I can think of is that it's burning it. Has anyone else experience this? The car has a warranty but you guys know how that works. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Sloboatsho.
Do you have a gravel driveway?
Maybe there is a small leak in your radiator or lines that you are just not noticing???

 

[Pintony]

Just a thought...
living in Florida did you have 100% WATER or close to it? If so, that would give you little protection from a frozen block or heads in Illinois.

 

[rubydist]

most likely it has a very small leak on the top side of the engine. I had that on one of my cars and it would leak onto the engine and evaporate so I never saw a puddle on the floor, but I had to put in antifreeze about once a month. I only found it by chance when I opened the hood one day with the engine warm and saw a wet spot on the top of the engine. I would look over the engine very carefully to see what you can find.

 

[SHOdded]

That would be on a Gen I/II, right, ruby?

 

[rubydist]

I have actually had that happen on both a 5.0 ** and a 3.2 SHO.

 

[markathome]

Good info.
I have found that I have to add coolant to mine about once per year. Been doing that for about 5 years now.

I've also noticed the same on my son's 1.0 liter Ecoboost, but about once every 6 months with that engine.
No smell, no visible leaks....Maybe just normal...(?).


Sent from my XT1094 using Tapatalk

 

[SHOdded]

Some amount of leakage via the weep hole is apparently considered normal by Ford. But when the frequency or amount increases, that'd be cause for worry ... possible coolant pump replacement in the future. Unlikely to give any warnings other than overheating. If it does overheat, pull over immediately and stop the engine, do not attempt to drive it again. Tow to service shop.