I own an '82 F250 with the 351M .. and there's a spout at the neck where the rad hose connects to the front of the block.. it doesn't look like it should be there. everytime the truck gets to operating temperature, steam comes from the spout. Rad is full.. not coolant but with water. It's starting to bother me how much it steams, I cannot figure out what the cause of it is. It's just a beater truck and doesn't have an air cleaner, and when this steam comes out the condensation builds up under the hood and drips into the carb.. any help would be much appreciated. I'm only 17 so I don't know every little thing about these engines just yet.

 

Did you say you're running straight water, with no coolant, in the radiator?

 

Yeah.. I've had the truck for about 6 months now, and drive it at least 3 times a week, and it hasn't shown any signs of a problem with using just the water. This thing about the spout or whatever at the neck of the rad hose/block just came up recently. My buddy who owned the truck before never had a problem with the cooling system or anything. I talked to an old guy about it yesterday, and he said something about EGI (?) I forgot what he said, but he told me to just plug the spout thing.. So I did and for some reason it lost oil pressure. =S

 

Hmm, I've never heard of running straight water (no coolant) in the radiator as a "normal practice" in any vehicle. If the water/coolant mixture contains too much water, it can cause steam and/or overheating problems, as well as serious damage to the radiator if the water freezes due to cold weather.