Coolant drop while running

[99tjadams]

5.3l and once the truck warms up on highway,coolant light comes on and reservoir is dead empty, turn truck off and coolant slowly rises in reservoir. Start truck 20 min later and coolant drops again. Upper and lower hoses soft and when squeezed coolant rises slightly.
Also have very slow coolant loss, added dye, used light found nothing,no drips under pump, pressurized system, found tiny drips near tstat, replaced tstat and upper and lower hoses, changed coolant problem went away for a month or two, now it's back.
Any suggestions?

 

[M3PO]

If you sealed all the leaks and are still having to add antifreeze, more than likely you are burning it. If you are burning it, you might have air in your system, which could the reason on the mysterious fluid levels.

 

[99tjadams]

update

Coolant loss got worse- gallon a month maybe.
Found a service bulliten for 5.3L coolant loss through cracked head.
Pulled valve cover and found yellow goo.

I guess this confirms a cracked head???could it be anything else?

I read that by the time you pay for a head repair, you may as well change the whole engine, I've got 140, 000 miles.
This looks like a good opportunity to get a few more horses out of it too.

 

[ATL]

yep, go ahead and check craigslist, you can pick up 5.3s around here for like 400-500 bucks