Varying coolant levels

[GhostStrykre]

This is a bit of a weird one, but I have a hunch that there's a simple explanation.

My coolant level a couple of months ago was a little low, so I topped it off to the max fill line. It's the orange coolant that Ford used on the early 2019 Rangers.

A couple of weeks ago I had the hood open while working on the bucking/surging issue (completely resolved by replacing that vacuum sensor) and noticed that my coolant level was above the max fill line by a small amount.. wtf.

Today I had the hood open and noticed the coolant level is just a tad below the max fill line.

Each time I'm doing this the truck is, what I thought, quite cool and hasn't been run for at least a couple of hours. I know the orange coolant has a tendency to evaporate a little (looking forward to switching to mountain dew), but that doesn't explain how the level went up. Is it possible there is just extra coolant in the engine that re-enters the reservoir over time?

I'm at the point where I'm about to decide if I want to start putting money into aftermarket stuff for this truck. It has 48k miles so I was kind of concerned the engine might be having coolant related issues.

I pulled a spark plug and here's how it looked:

That was cylinder 2... at first I thought it was a little too clean, but it does not have that grey color to it. So I think it's actually good. No coolant in the cylinders. I only ever pay for the 93 octane fuel due to the cleaning additives in it. I'm chalking that clean plug up to that fuel type for now because I do literally EVERYTHING that should turn those plugs black (loads of short trips, long idles, etc.).

Anyone have any thoughts on the varying coolant level? The truck is running great, no white exhaust or anything, but I just wanna be sure I get out ahead of any problems if I can. I have an oil change coming up and I'll probably grab the free analysis kit. I'm not expecting to find anything there either.

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[JimJ]

This is a bit of a weird one, but I have a hunch that there's a simple explanation.

My coolant level a couple of months ago was a little low, so I topped it off to the max fill line. It's the orange coolant that Ford used on the early 2019 Rangers.

A couple of weeks ago I had the hood open while working on the bucking/surging issue (completely resolved by replacing that vacuum sensor) and noticed that my coolant level was above the max fill line by a small amount.. wtf.

Today I had the hood open and noticed the coolant level is just a tad below the max fill line.

Each time I'm doing this the truck is, what I thought, quite cool and hasn't been run for at least a couple of hours. I know the orange coolant has a tendency to evaporate a little (looking forward to switching to mountain dew), but that doesn't explain how the level went up. Is it possible there is just extra coolant in the engine that re-enters the reservoir over time?

I'm at the point where I'm about to decide if I want to start putting money into aftermarket stuff for this truck. It has 48k miles so I was kind of concerned the engine might be having coolant related issues.

I pulled a spark plug and here's how it looked:

That was cylinder 2... at first I thought it was a little too clean, but it does not have that grey color to it. So I think it's actually good. No coolant in the cylinders. I only ever pay for the 93 octane fuel due to the cleaning additives in it. I'm chalking that clean plug up to that fuel type for now because I do literally EVERYTHING that should turn those plugs black (loads of short trips, long idles, etc.).

Anyone have any thoughts on the varying coolant level? The truck is running great, no white exhaust or anything, but I just wanna be sure I get out ahead of any problems if I can. I have an oil change coming up and I'll probably grab the free analysis kit. I'm not expecting to find anything there either.

You filled to the max when engine is cool or cold? The max line is when hot as it expands when hot . So you over filled your expansion tank. When cold should be at lower line!

 

[Jason B]

As long as there IS coolant in the tank, you should be fine. It's when the tank goes try that you have to worry about a problem.

 

[GhostStrykre]

You filled to the max when engine is cool or cold? The max line is when hot as it expands when hot . So you over filled your expansion tank. When cold should be at lower line!

d'oh! might be time to break out the turkey baster!

yeah i thought i'd looked over the user's manual to make sure there wasn't a specific level for engine temp and didn't see it. right now the engine is totally cold and the tank is reading just a bit over halfway between low and max.

probably will be fine as is, so i'll leave it be unless i see it waaay over the max. i'll check next time i'm at normal operating temps.

remember that hunch that there's a simple explanation? me bein a dummy. simple enough! geez.

thanks for the feedback!

 

[RangerBill]

You should check the level when completely cold (overnight is good). If the engine was run only a couple of hours ago before checking, the coolant will still be higher then when completely cold. This would account for your varying levels.

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