Head gaskets,

[1994xlt]

Hey guys out for

Ha, it made it a week after the event and broke something. Not really a surprise at all. The cylinders were very badly worn in that motor. Like there was about a 1/16” lip around the top of the cylinders where the rings stopped at the top of the stroke. That motor was the most abused I’d ever seen.

I wouldn’t worry too much about it. If you plan to do the head gaskets, pull it apart and if the cylinders look bad, then you can switch to swapping engines. 90+% of the time the bottom end will be fine. If it isn’t, well, you had to tear that stuff apart anyway to pull the motor. Nothing lost.

If you’re really worried about, do a compression test now. If the coolant isn’t leaking into the cylinders, a compression test will give you an idea of the health. If you can stick a borescope in the spark plug holes you should be able to examine the cylinders without tearing it apart as well.

do you daily this Ranger or is it a toy?

 

[1994xlt]

What they said ^^
Bore scope and compression test. Your shop will have that equipment and it's easy to do. Couple hours and you'll have a good indication of what's going on.

Okay thank you

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Hey guys out for

do you daily this Ranger or is it a toy?

Choptop is supposed to be a toy, but every now and then it gets to pull daily duty. Need to put my green Ranger back together so it can resume daily duties as intended but it’s liable to be a couple months on that because there’s a bunch of welding repair needed and the weather has been crap lately. Really could stand to have a garage to work in. Then it’s on to fixing one of my work rigs, F-350. Once that is done, I’ll have to decide which I want to fix first, my 88 or rebuilding my F-150. Then I get to move on to other projects. Never ends.

 

[1994xlt]

Choptop is supposed to be a toy, but every now and then it gets to pull daily duty. Need to put my green Ranger back together so it can resume daily duties as intended but it’s liable to be a couple months on that because there’s a bunch of welding repair needed and the weather has been crap lately. Really could stand to have a garage to work in. Then it’s on to fixing one of my work rigs, F-350. Once that is done, I’ll have to decide which I want to fix first, my 88 or rebuilding my F-150. Then I get to move on to other projects. Never ends.

I feel you, mowing lawns somthing is always broke

 

[Suwanee Broncos]

A few simple tests you can try...

A head gasket can leak into a few different places:

***Leaks coolant into oil: Your oil would look milky. If the truck had sat without being started, it may show up as an unexpectedly high oil level. If it's a small amount it may just look milky under the oil cap.

***Leaks coolant into the cylinder: Steam at exhaust. Plugs might look "wet" over carbon depending on how bad it's leaking. Probably runs rough.

***Pushes combustion gasses into cylinder: As mentioned above, there's a device to test for combustion gasses at the radiator. Sometimes you can just run the engine without the cap and see the bubbles. Sometimes they will show themselves in the coolant reservoir.

***Leaks coolant to outside of engine: Could be a failed gasket, a crack in the head or block, a rusted or damaged freeze plug, or a coolant leak from somewhere else higher up on the engine.

Things you can easily test:

*** Check oil condition.
*** Harbor Freight/ parts stores/ Amazon sells kits to pressurize your cooling system. In your trucks case, the radiator cap would be replaced with an adapter, then you'd pressurize that with the kit's hand pump. There is an attached pressure gauge. If it holds pressure, you're good. If not, the leak will show up due to being pressurized.

If it's leaking to the outside of the engine, confirm that it's not coming from higher up. Water pump, heater hose connections, intake all have coolant running through them. Make sure that it's not one of these places that's finding it's way down. Freeze plugs are a pain in the rear to get to, but they're super cheap.

Don't give up on your engine yet. Check these things and educate yourself on what's going on. Even if you don't end up fixing it yourself you need to know what you're sending the truck to the shop for.

 

[1994xlt]

A few simple tests you can try...

A head gasket can leak into a few different places:

***Leaks coolant into oil: Your oil would look milky. If the truck had sat without being started, it may show up as an unexpectedly high oil level. If it's a small amount it may just look milky under the oil cap.

***Leaks coolant into the cylinder: Steam at exhaust. Plugs might look "wet" over carbon depending on how bad it's leaking. Probably runs rough.

***Pushes combustion gasses into cylinder: As mentioned above, there's a device to test for combustion gasses at the radiator. Sometimes you can just run the engine without the cap and see the bubbles. Sometimes they will show themselves in the coolant reservoir.

***Leaks coolant to outside of engine: Could be a failed gasket, a crack in the head or block, a rusted or damaged freeze plug, or a coolant leak from somewhere else higher up on the engine.

Things you can easily test:

*** Check oil condition.
*** Harbor Freight/ parts stores/ Amazon sells kits to pressurize your cooling system. In your trucks case, the radiator cap would be replaced with an adapter, then you'd pressurize that with the kit's hand pump. There is an attached pressure gauge. If it holds pressure, you're good. If not, the leak will show up due to being pressurized.

If it's leaking to the outside of the engine, confirm that it's not coming from higher up. Water pump, heater hose connections, intake all have coolant running through them. Make sure that it's not one of these places that's finding it's way down. Freeze plugs are a pain in the rear to get to, but they're super cheap.

Don't give up on your engine yet. Check these things and educate yourself on what's going on. Even if you don't end up fixing it yourself you need to know what you're sending the truck to the shop for.

We pressure tested it yesterday and it didn’t leak but it did once started it was leaking pretty good,

 

[1994xlt]

I got the quote back for the head gasket install, no I’m not installing them myself I just don’t have the proper space to do it or really time, I 1600 dollars is the absolute lowest it would cost and that’s a flawless install, with that said I’m gonna put a motor in it and be done thank you guys for your response and help as well

 

[rumblecloud]

Well..ok then. We'll be here to help in any way we can.

 

[1994xlt]

Well..ok then. We'll be here to help in any way we can.

Thank you, I looked into motors, for it, were all 4.0s the same or was there engine differences thru the years

 

[1994xlt]

Well..ok then. We'll be here to help in any way we can.

Thank you for your help sir and opinions and guidance it’s just too big of project for me to tackle with the risk of having to send off head to machine shop I just figure it would be less stressful and less hassle to have a motor put in

 

[pacstud]

Thank you for your help sir and opinions and guidance it’s just too big of project for me to tackle with the risk of having to send off head to machine shop I just figure it would be less stressful and less hassle to have a motor put in

fwiw, I was in the same boat a couple months ago (leaking short block with 360k miles). I found a used engine and a machine shop I trust. When it's all said and done, I'll spend less buying, shipping, and rebuilding a lower mileage used engine than a remanufactured that is made out of ???? and I don't know anything about it. If you can get 5 years and 70k miles for a decent price, that's different of course. tbf I don't know if I'd gone this route without a local shop I trust.

 

[1994xlt]

fwiw, I was in the same boat a couple months ago (leaking short block with 360k miles). I found a used engine and a machine shop I trust. When it's all said and done, I'll spend less buying, shipping, and rebuilding a lower mileage used engine than a remanufactured that is made out of ???? and I don't know anything about it. If you can get 5 years and 70k miles for a decent price, that's different of course. tbf I don't know if I'd gone this route without a local shop I trust.

Well the engine I would buy and I would have the dealership I work at put it in or my dad would order one and have his shop put it on, either way I know what is going on when it’s put in and the quality of motor will be decent enough and if it is a 5 year so many mile no questions asked warranty it will be ok he said at his work I can get a motor installed for 2 grand or less that is the motor cost and install cost and then I’m gonna get a quote for a motor from my place of work too both of us work at ford dealers