I'm scared

[4inchsnappy]

i'm a new member,first post. this past weekend I started my 95 sub. 6.5 I left the truck to idle/warm up cause it was cold. outide temp was 20 degrees. I came back 30 minutes later to load up. the sepentine belt had jumped off. the batery light was on, the temp gage was pegged at the red line, there was coolant on the snow under the truck. I was in a remote area. I put the belt back on and topped off the coolent, I noticed the tensioner pully was off/worn so I will replace that. This is my first diesel did I just overheat it/ruin the engine? what can I do? what should I look for?

[trbankii]

Ummm... Doesn't sound good at all... Really hard to say how bad it is without looking at things.

Any reason you let it idle for half an hour unattended? On a really cold day I'll sit for maybe five minutes before heading out and then drive gently until it warms up the rest of the way.

[JTodd]

You might have boiled your coolant out of the overflow tank. It came from somewhere, so the first thing to do is figure out where. How did it run after replacing the belt?

[4inchsnappy]

After I put the belt back on, the truck ran fine. Temp gauge was in it normal spot. I do believe the coolant boiled out of the coolant overflow tube, the truck was gurgling when i arrived. do I just keep driving it?

[Bnave95]

I'd say sence it was not under a load your ok.
Good time for a oil change.
About 5yrs. ago I was pulling a TT in FL. The sun was in my eyes and was just driving----Then the truck started to slow,loss power and let off. Check the gage's and holy %$#t The belt had jumped. The Alt. pully had came lose. The truck died on its on and I was still doing 55. Had to use the TT brakes just to stop. Now you want to talk about HOT :eek: After the fix,spare belt,tighten pully,water from TT and was on my way. Truck is still running strong ;)

[4inchsnappy]

yikes--well I guess it is nice to hear a worse story when compared to mine. Thanks for the imput.

[a5150nut]

Be sure to bleed the air out of the cooling system using the bleed screw on the tremostat housing.

[tommac95]

Great tale , Bnave. So much sad news it's good to hear survival feats!

[mudnutt]

About 5yrs. ago I was pulling a TT in FL. The sun was in my eyes and was just driving----Then the truck started to slow,loss power and let off. Check the gage's and holy %$#t The belt had jumped. The Alt. pully had came lose. Bnave95, i had a 94 dually a couple of years ago that i had the same thing happen with the alt. pulley. Mine was a little worse though. When i pulled the pass head 2 of the 4 cylinders were cracked.

[rustypig]

Check your idler pulley to see if the bearing is going south (take the belt off and spin it). When it's going/gone bad it is not uncommon for the belt to jump the pulley and do exactly what you've described. Autozone usually carries a replacement pulley with bearing installed for under 25 bucks. I had the same thing happen once a few years back in the middle of nowhere and had to match up a cheap 1" (IRCC) bearing to press in the pulley. Of course it failed 6 months later and did the same thing. Fortunately the wife was near home and I got the correct part from AZ then...no issues since.

Doah...on second re-read of your post...I see you already replaced the idler pulley, so my money say's you've fixed the issue.

[Bnave95]

Mudnutt
How many miles did you have on your Eng? The Eng. was so hot I had to let it set for a hour just to work on it. After the fix I restarted before adding water,and made sure the system was bleed.
Luck may have been on my side,and funny how in that time that not one person stoped. I have stoped when ever I've seen a TT along side of the road.
My Eng. was a GM replacement at the time with around 20K miles on it.

[mudnutt]

Bnave95
I dont remember the exact number of miles on the truck when it happened. Around 140k i believe. Nobody stopped for me that day either. By the time i got back to the truck with a new belt and some coolant it was cool enough to work on. Got it back together and drove to the nearest relatives as they were closer then my place, but after i shut it off it would never start again, the cylinders were full of coolant.

[16gaSxS]

I hate to admit this but I think I have had 4 overheat events as bad or worse. Just do what you did drive the truck and watch you coolant and oil for signs of cracked coolant passages or blown head gasket. I would doubt you hurt the truck too much at idle. The oil change is good advice. If it get too hot the truck shuts down, (had that happen once).