I'm calling it "Low-C"

[ForgedCrank]

More tap water and coolant flush. S.

I'm mainly worried about getting the block cleaned out before i put it back together. I'm tossing the radiator and heater core in the trash, I don't need any hassles later and it's cheap enough to just do it now. I can't stand dealing with coolant, I'd rather bathe in 80-90 gear oil than to get coolant on me, I dunno why the stuff makes me cringe. So I'm only doing this once man. Problem is, all the radiators I'm finding are backwards and have the fill and overflow on the wrong side. I'd like to stick with the stock plastic tank type if I can find a new one somewhere.

 

[JoshT]

They should be readily available. My 85 needs one so I was looking into potential donors not too long ago. IIRC same radiator was used mid 80s up through the 90s.

EDIT: Yes, that's what I was remembering. The mounting style between my 84 and my 85 was different. Same mounting style was used from 85 through 94. This should be the radiator you need:

https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/ford,1994,ranger,2.3l+l4,1137967,cooling+system,radiator,2172

 

[ForgedCrank]

Is this not it:

https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/ford,1994,ranger,2.3l+l4,1137967,cooling+system,radiator,2172

Sorta, I wanted to find one for a manual and not give up the capacity to make up for the trans cooler i wont even be using.
It;s silly anyway probably, I imagine the difference probably isn't even worth noting as far as cooling capacity for the engine and they seem to work just fine in an auto trans vehicle.... sometimes I just get too picky I recon

 

[JoshT]

I'm mainly worried about getting the block cleaned out before i put it back together.

I'll stand by what I said previously. Flush it with straight water until it runs clear, that'll clean out most of whats in there. That is after the head is back on if you removed it, of course. After getting it back together I'd run a system flush a couple of times before refilling with proper coolant. The inside of the block may look dirty, but it'll mostly be surface rust and deposits not much scale.

 

[JoshT]

Sorta, I wanted to find one for a manual and not give up the capacity to make up for the trans cooler i wont even be using.
It;s silly anyway probably, I imagine the difference probably isn't even worth noting as far as cooling capacity for the engine and they seem to work just fine in an auto trans vehicle.... sometimes I just get too picky I recon

After a period of time almost all manufacturers phase out the manual versions without the cooler. Consolidate to one part number for both models, and nothing gained by getting rid of it.

The transmission cooler is straight fluid to fluid in the end tank, it does not go through the core. A little bit of that tank volume is lost, but no effect on the cooling capacity of the radiator. Even the lost fluid volume is not very significant.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Pic of fluid to fluid heat exchanger for transmision. I happened to pull apart a bunch of rads the other day. At least one of the 4 was a ranger rad. The others were various, from i4 to v8.

 

[ForgedCrank]

I'll stand by what I said previously. Flush it with straight water until it runs clear, that'll clean out most of whats in there. That is after the head is back on if you removed it, of course. After getting it back together I'd run a system flush a couple of times before refilling with proper coolant. The inside of the block may look dirty, but it'll mostly be surface rust and deposits not much scale.

Ok I'm following you now, you meant after I get it running again.

One more question for you guys... in your opinion:
this thing got hot, I mean hot enough to actually crack the head in between the valve seats. Knowing that, couple of things...
If the cylinders measure ok (best I can without pulling the pistons anyway) and aren't scored or anything, what do you think are the odds that the block got warped or cracked anywhere? I'm wondering if that is enough to do any damage to the ring tension or anything like that. I can say the oil didn't smell burned or anything, it's was just black as night. I'm trying to decide if I should pull and strip it to have it checked or not. I'm obviously trying to avoid it if it's a safe bet, but I dunno.
Also, with that kind of heat in the head, when I bolt the new one on, would it be ok re-using the head bolts, or would you replace them?
I may be over-thinking this one, just trying to gather a parts list and decide if I should pull the entire thing and go through it or not. No way that pan is coming off without pulling the engine, so I can't easily check the mains and rods. It's an 80K mile engine, so it could be fine, I've just not seen the results before of something getting this hot so I don't know what all I should be concerned with. I'm a bit outside of my realm of experience with this type of meltdown.

 

[ForgedCrank]

Pic of fluid to fluid heat exchanger for transmision. I happened to pull apart a bunch of rads the other day. At least one of the 4 was a ranger rad. The others were various, from i4 to v8.

That's actually pretty neat, I've never torn one apart to see what's in there. I'm guessing that little 2-row job is prob what I'm dealing with. I guess I am fretting too much about little things. I warned you guys, I have lots of stupid questions. hehe

 

[scotts90ranger]

Unless you got it real hot then added cold water the block is likely fine, the only real thing these things do is crack the heads between the valves...

 

[JoshT]

Straight edge and a feeler gauge will tell you if it is warped enough to matter. Straight edge and a flash light will probably tell you enough.

Head bolts? I took a look at the 93-05 Haynes manual I have sitting here. It talks about reusing the head bolts on the 2.3L. That said, they are only around $30 for a set, so I'd probably replace them anyway.

 

[19Walt93]

Look closely at the cylinder walls, if they have a bluish tint it should be honed an reringed. At that point I'd pull it out and go through it. Some machine shops have a cleaning solution they can boil the block in that will removed every speck of rust and paint so you start fresh. The solution isn't environmentally friendly so it might not be available everywhere.
Either way, the water pump is easy to replace when the coolant is already drained. Rusty coolant can erode the pump impeller.

 

[ForgedCrank]

Alright, here I am, finally got the head off and looked things over.
The cylinders are measuring within acceptable ranges on service limit tolerances, but I can only measure to the piston tops, so I'm making an assumption that the bottom half should be good. I measured all of them, then did it a second time for validation and checked the dial bore gauge between measuring each cylinder.
But here's where I'd appreciate input. Visually, cylinder 1 has a lot of discoloring and/or staining of some sort. To me, it looks like from something that sat for years without moving, but I'm also wondering if it could be from the overheat incident. Remember, I'm not the one who melted it down, I bought it this way so details are scant. What I know is, it overheated and he drove it about 10 miles piping hot, then parked in in the work parking lot where it sat for a few months. I'm wondering if water was in Cylinder 1 when he parked it and it caused that discoloring? It doesn't look blue, it just looks like a dark stain, but it's hard to tell for certain. Opinions would really be appreciated. You can also see what looks like visible scoring in some places, I tried to take the most unflattering pictures I could using the light. You can't feel any of it except above the ring ridge where it's a little rough, which I write off as pretty normal. Also to note: the #1 cylinder (the discolored one) was washed clean in the exhaust port and header, so for sure it was pumping water through there during combustion. the other three looked pretty normal other than maybe a little rich in cylinder 4.
Measurements (top half of cylinders only, it's all I can do without pulling the pistons):
------------------
Target OD- 3.781" +- .0014
taper (service limit) max .010"
OOR (service limit) max .005"

1 - 3.7805
taper - .0005
OOR - .001
-------
2 - 3.781
taper - .000
OOR - .001
------
3 - 3.780
taper - .0005
OOR - .002 (90 degrees off wrist pin axis)
------
4 - 3.7810
taper - .0000
OOR - .001
--------------------------------------------
Cylinder 1. Note the discoloring (none of it is detectable by feel or with dial bore gauge):

Cylinder 2:

Cylinder 3:

Cylinder 4:

Anyway, what's your guys take on what you see?

 

[superj]

that staining is smooth and you cannot feel it, even with a fine tipped scribe? i feel like its probably ok but let some guy with more experience answer as i have only done overheat related overhauls on two or three engines and i cannot recall if they have discoloration in the bores. (been a number of years)

 

[ForgedCrank]

that staining is smooth and you cannot feel it, even with a fine tipped scribe? i feel like its probably ok but let some guy with more experience answer as i have only done overheat related overhauls on two or three engines and i cannot recall if they have discoloration in the bores. (been a number of years)

The staining and weird splotches, no. Completely undetectable.
The vertical "scoring", almost all of it is the same, can't feel it at all. There are a couple of lines (as in 2) in various cylinders that you can barely tell are there with a fingernail, but it's so slight that you have to keep going back over it and questioning if you really can tell it's there or not. It's very minor, I'm not concerned with them at all.
To me, it's difficult to not do the entire thing. I always insist that if I've got it this far apart, do it right. I just don't want to be silly and needlessly spend another 1500 bucks boring it and buying all new innards if it will go the distance as it is. I mean, I still may wind up deciding to do that, I'm waiting to see what others think of it and get some sort of consensus first.

 

[ForgedCrank]

An update because I'm bored and waiting on my head to come back...

So far while I've been waiting...

- Scrubbed down block and doghouse with PurplePower, removed all of the oil mess from leaking power steering pump
- moved hardware to new AC condenser
- Sandblasted the front suspension and rot spots in the radiator support
- Cleaned, primed and painted blasted areas, applied rustproofing to radiator support and battery box bottom
- transferred and glued all of the foam to the new AC condenser
- Drained and refilled trans with fresh Mercon V
- Drained rear end, found that cover was cracked around a bolt hole (freekin plastic cover). New cover on order
- re-painted wiper arms
- installed new heater core
- pulled blower fan and cleaned out screen
- washed and scrubbed all the parts that have been removed, plastics, etc
- cleaning and painting bolts that were rusty

Machine shop update this morning projects the head should be done before end of the week. Really anxious to get this running and off my project list.