Ford Ranger / B-Series :: Blown Head Gasket?
Feb 7, 2015
I have read all I could find on replacing a blown head gasket and and after absorbing everything that TigerDan posted on here, I dove in and began. After disassembling all the topside junk I finally got the intake manifold loose and got down to the head. I began undoing the head bolts and found two broken bolts. The head won't budge so I am calling in a cherrypicker. I don't know what kind of mess I'll find when the head comes off. I assume the head will be warped or the block may be damaged.
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I have a 2000 Ranger, V6 4L, and I believe my head gasket is blown, my radiator fluid goes straight to the oil pan. It has probably been leaking for a while, I did not realize it was leaking internally, I had been adding coolant for a few months but thought it was my radiator leaking because it had a crack in the housing, so I had that changed, but then a few weeks after that It gave out. I drained, and flushed the engine twice, and just parked it. My question is, should I just have the head gasket changed, or does it need a new engine because it had been leaking for a while and not sure what kind of damage it has done internally.
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I have a 91 Ranger V6 4WD with 150K that has been sitting for 7 years. The last time I drove it (7 years ago) to a mechanic, who diagnosed it with a bad head gasket - leaking coolant and coolant in the oil.
What am I looking at as far as a project: besides redoing the head gasket, what else will I most likely need to do given that its been sitting 7 years?
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My 95 Ranger has been a good truck in the 6 years I've owned it. I had to pull the heads to replace a leaking head gasket and wound up having the heads rebuilt due to weak valve springs and worn valves. I replaced the gaskets, installed the heads, get it all back together.....won't start. Fuel pressure is good. Found that there is no spark. While putting the crankshaft position sensor connector back on I noticed it didn't look too good. I replaced the connector and that's all I did and no spark. Long story short, after a lot of research, the coil pack, cps and coolant temp sensor were replaced and still no spark.
Everything has the proper voltage to it. After a little more research I found a post with the same basic issue. His issue wound up being the ecm. So I removed the ecm....it's a used one from a salvage yard. I've owned the truck 6 years so I have no idea when the ecm was replaced. It showed up today and will get installed when I get home from work. I also ran across posts about the camshaft sunchronizer and they should be replaced at about 80K miles. Since the truck has 289K I'll replace it. Still no spark. I'm hoping it's the ecm.
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I am working on my buddy's 1994 Ranger with a 2.3L I4 that has been going thru a large amount of engine coolant. The trucks has approximately 180,000 miles on it. When I had it parked on concrete I have not seen any signs of coolant on the concrete or any signs of coolant leaking. The next place I checked was inside the cab to see if there was any coolant from the heater core and there was not. The water pump has been replaced a couple of years back. I replaced the spark plugs today and did not see anything on the plugs that I would have thought were signs of coolant in the combustion chambers.
With that being said I have not worked on a vehicle with a leaking head gasket before. Would there be any visible signs on the sparks plugs? If so what would I be looking for? When standing in front of the vehicle with the engine running there is a slight smell of antifreeze being "vaporized". Are there any noted issues with this engine that would cause this? Are there any other things I should check? Could it be a leaking head gasket causing this? If so how can I check for that?
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Well I finally went and bought another Ranger. Pretty red 5spd 4WD long bed. I knew it didn't run when I got it (crazy leaky fuel line...stupid squirrels), and the owner was pretty sure it had a head gasket failure. He claimed it was blowing white smoke and using coolant. I hadn't been able to get it to run to verify that, but I can't see why he would lie about that.
I finally got the fuel line fixed today (FYI, don't waste your time or money buying those Dorman OEM connector patch kits at Advanced Auto). While we were cranking the truck, I noticed gas escaping the degas bottle the radiator was pressurized before the thermostat should be open. That to me says blown head gasket (crossing fingers it isn't a cracked head) for sure. I tried to get a picture of the dipstick, but in the light it definitely looks like peanut butter. I just wanted to make sure before the massive ordeal of pulling heads/top end work that will follow
Anyway, plan is to fix her up and get her back on the road! Some picture enjoyment .......
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i have a 06 explorer with the 4.0 V6. 4x4 XLT with 106xxx miles. i just bought this thing back in January. of corse, i didn't get an ext warranty. well the past couple months its been loosing power, its got a stumble and seems sluggish. its losing water. no water in oil, no oil in water, don't smell coolant in the exhaust. yesterday i went out and looked and found at front of head on pass side at front cyl, there was coolant from head gasket down the block and also in the valley of the block. i started the engine and once warm, everything was dry. shut it off after about 20 minutes and still nothing wet. this afternoon the only wet spot was in the valley which was dry after running yesterday. is there anything else i can check before tearing it down? with the water in the valley, it looks like it could be coming from the thermo housing.
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I have the same problem as the gentleman w/ the '97 4x4 4.6. Intermittent overheating. The water pump and t-stat have both been replaced, as well as the radiator. Some one told me a piece of gasket material from the heater core may be floating around and periodically clogging things. Could this happen? and what's the fix? Also, someone told the guy w/ the 4x4, that he could have blown head gasket, and to perform a sniffer test to find out.#1. What is a sniffer test? #2. If the head gasket is blown, wouldn't there be water in the oil?
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Truck is a 2006 F-350 6.0, ARP studs, Ford Head Gaskets, Bullet Proof Diesel Oil Cooler Kit and EGR with an SCT tuner on tow mode.
Towing approx 15,000 pounds noticed truck started to lose power and misfire. Pulled over and noticed engine oil all over the driver side on engine, looks like it sprayed to top of engine as well. Oil on valve cover, FICM, exhaust manifold. I looked under the truck and saw that oil is all over bottom of the truck, differential covered in oil as well. Looks like blue smoke coming from tailpipe and smells of oil burning. Cannot tell where oil originated from.
I removed the EGR Valve, to see if there was moisture on the valve and when I looked into the intake manifold there is engine oil pooled in the bottom of the intake manifold and on the EGR Valve.
This is not dirty water from soot, it is oil. Truck is misfiring, with no codes being thrown. I noticed a small amount of white residue around the radiator cap however I had just filled up the reservoir, week prior. I unfortunately do not have gauges in the truck and rely on the factory gauges; coolant temps did not rise or move at all when this happened. I am not sure if I blew a head gasket, and really confused on how engine oil got into the intake manifold. I ran the engine with the air filter removed and can see blue smoke coming out of the CCV and oil in residue in front of the turbo inlet.
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My 97 f150 5.4 started missing on 5,6 it had antifreeze on top of the spark plugs but i cant figure out where its coming from my truck has been loosing coolant and it seems like the system is holding pressure because every time i take the cap off the radiator overfill i can hear it hissing then i see the antifreeze level plummet there's no visible leaks that i have seen when the truck is running an missing it steams out the exhaust but when its no missing it doesn't seem to be there's no milky oil or anything the thermostat doesn't seem to be leaking either the truck has over heated a couple times due to the antifreeze disappearing or the temp wont move at all then it shoots all the way to hot and cools down within seconds to normal i just put a new thermostat in. Also it sometimes misses on 4 and my exhaust smells like straight gas i put 4 gallons in it got 29 miles out of it .
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I need walked through the take down to replace the head gasket on an 05 mountaineer with a 4.0. I've never worked on one of these so I don't even know. I havent even seen the engine to know where to start.
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I just bought a used 5.4 for my 99' F150 4X4. My current engine has a blown head gasket. Anyway, I was able to hear the engine run before I bought it, and was able to check it out some. (oil, anti-freeze) I was told that this engine was bought from a salvage yard with 50K, and 50K more put on it before I bought it.
I was also told that the intake manifold is newer, from Autozone, and it has newer Accell coils. My question for you all, is ..... What do YOU think I should do otherwise before I install this engine. Oil pump? water pump? seals? ...
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I have my 4.6L engine on a stand in the garage. I think I have a blown head gasket. I am ready to remove the heads.
My Haynes book says: "Caution:Use the required camshaft retaining fixtures to lock the camshafts and leave the tools in place."
A google search shows nothing. Why, what does it do?
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I just purchased a 2003 F150 Supercrew 4.6 that had been wrecked, but somewhat repaired. I knew the owner said it had a blown head gasket. It has water in the oil (small amount asi it is lightly milky) and water starts dripping from the exhaust after it has run for a few minutes. I did not run it long, but throttled it up to warm the engine. It started dripping soot filled water from the exhaust connections. I bought it to put a 4bt in it anyway, but want to sell the motor with the ability to tell the buyer the skinny on it. I drove it on the trailer and off with no apparent loss of power noticeable.
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On July 18 my 1999 Ford Windstar van was towed and diagnosed with a blown head gasket. I FINALLY got it back on Sept 4th and was told it was idling a little rough, but it was probably due to water that got in the catalytic converter and would work itself out. The next day we drove it about an hour away it was idling VERY rough and started to stall every time we came to a stop or tried to slowly pull into a parking spot. The following Monday September 8th it wouldn't start and the shop came and towed it back in. It's still there and they are saying they aren't sure what's wrong with it, but are assuring me the problem is unrelated to their repairs. Every time I call they continue to say they are working on it. Where do I go from here?!?!
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Back Story: Ok so in my infinite wisdom I let myself get distracted when I was looking at an 01 F250 V10 Crew Cab. I thought, it needed all new breaks/rotor & 2 calipers. And new carpet and seats, then I would have a good hunting rig.
So I went and looked at the truck in the dark (first mistake). The guy was very honest with me and told me about all the body and interior issues. Even informed me of the caliper that he disconnected because he could not afford to fix it. He informed me that it did burn a little oil and it's been a while since he checked the oil. Well at that point I was going to look under the oil cap to check for any milky residue. Well I got distracted (Second Mistake).
So here we are 2 weeks after getting bringing the truck home. I already replaced the carpet and seats, breaks & rotor & 2 calipers. Well today I decided to go get some new oil and a filter, and do a quick oil change since who knows when it was done last.
Issue:While draining the Oil it seemed like there was an abnormally large amount of oil in this engine. (See photo of bucket full of oil from this rig.) Well didn't think much of it and swapped the filter. And went to add new oil to the engine and found that under the cap was some milky substance.
The V10 has 420K original miles. I have heard that is no big for the V10 but thought it would be good to note this detail. Questions I have: Should I get some kind of test kit to confirm it's a blown head gasket? If so what kind of Kit should I look for? Do you think this truck is worth replacing the head gasket?
Any chance this may just be a known issue for the V10 and I just need to replace some kind of valve? I could not find any you tube videos of a head gasket replacement on a V10 any thoughts where I should look?
My Skills: Just to be clear I don't know anything about the V10 motor. I have a 94 f-250 but have never had to dive in to a head gasket replacement before. I have done a head gasket replacement on smaller engines (IE: car and a jeep) but those were obvious that they had a bad head gasket.
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Well I was afraid this was going to happen. About a two years ago, several months after I replaced the heads on the van that at the time was my brothers, the ignored a squeaking pulley. One day that pulley seized and broke the belt. My brother was not watching the gauges closely, and didn't realize anything was wrong other than the clunk noise that happened when the belt was thrown. That was until he went to turn, and the power steering was gone. He looked at the gauges at that point, and the heat was pegged out on the gauge. So he pulled it over and shut it down. I came and towed him to a shop where it could be fixed.
But I fully understand that when an engine gets overheated, especially if the heat build up was rapid, the heads warp. I also understand that the head gasket will usually seal anyway, so the failure does not often happen at the time of the overheat.
Well, it finally let go the other day. Started noticing a rough idle and an obvious misfire. Removed the cap and there is a steady stream of small bubbles when the engine is running. There is also more corrosion than should be in the cooling system for how recently the coolant was replaced.
It is not overheating right now, but isn't this a lovely time for a major problem to occur. Anyway, I took it in, and hopefully they will have it finished before I need it again. My van performs truck roles, including towing and all of my fathers trucks are either too small or on deaths door. I'm sure it would drive most of you nuts anyway, but do not ignore squeaking pulleys.
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Radiator replaced 2 yrs. ago - required major rust cleanout; reservoir replaced shortly thereafter. Recently engine always hot, antifreeze disappearing, reservoir always looks rusty, nothing much coming out underneath, mechanic pressure tested and couldn't find a leak, told to watch for antifreeze in oil, none apparent. Now suddenly car ran hot, antifreeze came out of reservoir, cap replaced, still couldn't find leak. Today said head gasket blown. Repair head gasket, but can't guarantee wouldn't still have radiator problems. Suggested could try Blue Devil head gasket repair but may not work.
Is it worth :
(a) trying the Blue Devil;
(b) repairing the head gasket?
Or will I still have major repair needs with radiator etc.? I really can't afford even a cheap replacement car.
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2005 FORD F350 Lariat 6.0, 61,000 miles, and in prestine condition. Just got the news the head gasket is blown! HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?!!! My mechanic says to scrap the whole engine because the 6.0 is the worst engine around. This truck should last for years!!!!!
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I drove my car after the check engine light came on, stupidly without looking at the temperature gauge. When the car died, I had blown the head gasket, melted the spark plugs and did some other pretty serious damage to the engine. So now I am contemplating replacing the engine instead of buying a new car since I drive very infrequently (I take transit to work and do a lot of business travel by air). The car is 10 years old and only has 72,000 miles on it. The body is in good shape as well.
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I have a 1998 volvo s70 with 273k on it. I am pretty sure the head gasket is blown. The shop I usually take my car to said i need to take it to a dealer and that volvo usually wants to replace the engine on a car that old. Would you pay the 6k for a new engine or think about a new car?
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