2004 Ranger 3.0 blown heads no water

[kzp700]

Hello everyone. I have a 2004 Ranger 3.0 AT 4x2 with 200k miles. Last driver drove it looks like it started losing coolant in town and then he got on the freeway and drove until the engine quit.

It’s been sitting in the driveway for over a year now because I assumed the engine was blown and I didn't have the time for an engine swap. Started digging in to it after New Years and I was surprised to see that the engine looked ok. After inspection I found:

Radiator developed a leak near the upper radiator hose connection.
Plugs look fine.
Oil looks fine (no coolant, metal shavings, foreign material, or any other sign of oil failure or contamination).
Still had some about a half gallon of coolant in the system.

So, I’m thinking the engine may have overheated enough to blow the head gaskets without wrecking the entire engine. Scoped the cylinders and it seemed ok. I decided next step was to pull the heads and look for damage. So, I pulled them and found:

No obvious damage to heads, valves, rockers, pushrods, or block surface.
Some clear overheating of the head gaskets, including one place where compression made its way to an oil passage next to the cylinder.
No damage to the pistons.
Cylinder bores look good (no lip at the block surface, crosshatching still clearly visible), but I did find one cylinder where two small and very shallow scoring lines were present (I can just barely feel them with my finger nail).

I have very little budget for getting this truck running again. Last time I was in this situation with a vehicle (early 2000’s Chevy Cavalier 2.0) it passed visual inspection, so I just threw new gaskets in it and it ran for years. However, the cylinder scoring has me concerned. I don’t want to toss gaskets in and have it the scoring worsen into a problem that destroys the engine. I’m wondering if I could get by with lightly honing the one cylinder and putting in new rings, lapping the valves, and replacing the head gaskets.

Any advice is appreciated.

 

[Brain75]

Did you break every single head bolt getting em off? If you did, that engine is smoked... if you didn't break a one, I say hone it run it and love it - obvious you will care for and keep an eye on it better than the previous guy. I probably would do new rings all around since you are pulling it all apart (and it has 200k), but don't know that I would do anything to the valves unless they look like they need it - totally a judgement call by you based on how it looks and what you are gonna do with it.... daily driver for another 200k is different than a daily+weekends at the track kinda thing.

 

[kzp700]

All the bolts I pulled from the heads felt like they had correct torque.

 

[Brain75]

I doubt it got hot much at all then... an engine that was really overheated (I did it once) will have the head bolts welded in.

 

[kzp700]

Thanks for that info. Other than the head gaskets, I haven’t seen any other signs of overheating.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

I second putting in new rings. They could have lost tension if overheated.

 

[kzp700]

I’m seriously considering doing the rings. I’ve been concerned that the minor scoring I saw is the result of a ring issue. I know that if a ring overheated it could cause the ends of the ring to butt together and expand against the cylinder wall causing some damage, but I don’t know exactly what that damage would look like. I’ll try to get a picture posted of it.

 

[pjtoledo]

valve stem seals are likely cooked.