dagoof
New Member
- Joined
- Feb 6, 2010
- Messages
- 74
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 0
- Vehicle Year
- 1990
- Make / Model
- Ford
- Engine Size
- 302
- Transmission
- Automatic
Well, my Ranger started running funny on Saturday, and by about the time I got it home, I got huge clouds of sweet smelling white smoke coming out of the exhaust.
You can see where this is headed. I parked it, let it cool down, and then when I tried it, it wouldn't even turn over, so I pulled a spark plug and sure enough, the cylinder was full of anti-freeze. I pulled the rest of the plugs and it looks like I have coolant in about 6 of the 8 cylinders. I'm not sure what went wrong, or how I could have lost BOTH head gaskets at the same time. I won't know until I tear down the engine, but this engine has been a problem child from the beginning.
Now I don't know what to do. I just replaced the head gaskets on this thing last year cuz I was having problems with it burping air into the radiator. A year before that, I spent a bunch of money on this thing to replace the cam, intake, and front accessories/pulleys. On top of that, it needs a suspension lift so that I when I re-connect my front driveshaft, it will clear the headers. I also need new gears and/or an AOD (4-speed) transmission so that I can drive over 75 mph and not red-line the engine.
I'm getting tired of tearing this thing apart, and now that my engine is dead, I'm wondering if I should just start over.
You can see where this is headed. I parked it, let it cool down, and then when I tried it, it wouldn't even turn over, so I pulled a spark plug and sure enough, the cylinder was full of anti-freeze. I pulled the rest of the plugs and it looks like I have coolant in about 6 of the 8 cylinders. I'm not sure what went wrong, or how I could have lost BOTH head gaskets at the same time. I won't know until I tear down the engine, but this engine has been a problem child from the beginning.
Now I don't know what to do. I just replaced the head gaskets on this thing last year cuz I was having problems with it burping air into the radiator. A year before that, I spent a bunch of money on this thing to replace the cam, intake, and front accessories/pulleys. On top of that, it needs a suspension lift so that I when I re-connect my front driveshaft, it will clear the headers. I also need new gears and/or an AOD (4-speed) transmission so that I can drive over 75 mph and not red-line the engine.
I'm getting tired of tearing this thing apart, and now that my engine is dead, I'm wondering if I should just start over.