car : s-type 2001 4.0

so lately ive been smelling alot of coolant but see no leak. the other night i was doing some hard driving and when i came to a stop i could see minor smoke coming from hood but no overheating. coolant seems a bit low but stil fine.

ive heard it might be a cracked resevoir? thats what the ford guys at my work told me. if so how can i make sure and how hard is the resevoir to replace ?

 

Not too difficult to replace.

 

Check both ends of the overflow hose from the cap on the reservoir to the water pump hose assy. Most likely the reservoir end, but I did have the other end break on our 03. If so, you still have to replace the res, even though on first look you'd think there should be a simpler, cheaper solution. Reservoir is about $100-120 from the dealer and maybe 1/2 hr to change.

Rad hose assy is worse, in both cost and time.

 

Yo aholbro, was yer 79 Jeep 360 cid stock? I undertand they came with an optional 304 back yonder....

 

oh ok just seemed hard to replace due to location of resevoir didnt really check into taking it out closely. thank you

 

Hey Doc. You are correct..only a 304 from the factory...and how mine came...I was young and stupid and put steel headers one it fine day before running off to join the Navy.....a number of years later and I'm back in KY and the headers rusted out....where are my orig. cast iron manifolds? WhotheHeck knows!? So had to buy the 360 out of a '78 Waggoneer to get the manifolds. Set 360 aside, even though it ran fine...I had "built" the 304 to a certain extent.....when I moved to TX in 99....I decided I couldn't carry a spare motor around...had the 360 swapped in to reunite with its exh manifolds and here I am.....gotta get re-started on that project one of these days.....I always liked the 360 better ......