99' 3.0l F/F Cylinder Head????????????

[kawasakiman27]

Hello all! I have a 99' Ranger 3.0 Flex Fuel and just recently rebuilt the whole cooling system do to leaks in the radiator and water pump. All was fine for about a month untill now. Now I'm getting overpressure in the cooling system via bubbles in the overflow (already replaced to caps). To make a long story short, I've diagnosed the problem to be cylinder head gasket leakage on the combustion stroke. Because #1 the system bubbles in the overflow even when the truck is running (smells bad) and #2 ive performed a cooling system leak check and pressure dropped from around 17 psi to under 14 in about five to ten minutes with no external leak anywhere. As for pressure in the system, can this only be narrowed down to what ive described? The truck shows no other symptoms ie.. overheating, frothy oil, or white smoke. Now would seem to be the best time to fix it huh? Should I do a compression test or just go for broke and tear it apart? thank you, your help is greatly appriciated.

 

[kawasakiman27]

Sorry Im new and didn't know about the maintenance forums