- Joined
- May 17, 2026
- Messages
- 5
- Points
- 1
- City
- salisbury
- State - Country
- NC - USA
- Vehicle Year
- 2000
- Vehicle
- Ford Ranger
- Drive
- 2WD
- Engine
- 3.0 V6
- Transmission
- Automatic
Hello all, long time member here under my other highly similar username. Email got deactivated, so here we are......mods feel free to merge or contact me for new email.
Anywho, long story short, My ranger decided to blow the radiator cap off after a drive. I was able to get it off of the interstate and to a safe location but not until it had began to overheat after puking all the coolant out. After letting it cool and refilling, I was able to limp it home. Suspicions confirmed it was only running on three cylinders (2, 5, and 6 dead), but there was no mixing of coolant in the oil or pressure in the cooling system, so the bottom end is fine. Needless to say I knew the heads needed to come off, so I bit the bullet, even though the head gaskets seemed to be fine.
After getting the heads off, The valves were pitted and slightly warped beyond my comfort zone even with cutting and lapping, so I got reman heads and slapped them in. I did check the new heads for leak down and vacuum and all checked out. block was level and pistons and cylinders looked new. Rockers and pushrods were fine. All injectors checked out resistance wise and clicked. Surgical clean application of new gaskets of course.
Tldr: Fast forward to putting everything back together, the exact same three cylinders are dead, no change whatsoever. cat is glowing red so the injectors are working (unplugging injectors from dead cylinders gets rid of glow, no engine change), and I have spark in all six. No white blue or black smoke from the tailpipe, so the rings are fine. Swapped plugs and wires with no change. Unplugged the maf with no change. no cel or misfire codes, as before the head removal. Lifters all pumped identically and as expected, so no wiped cam.
I'm well experienced from years of wrenching on nearly everything under the sun, but this one has me damn perplexed. I thought maybe the coil could be sus, but I would expect a matching pair of cylinders to have issues if that was the case. Unless there's some hidden limp mode I'm not aware of, I'm totally stumped. Any and all suggestions welcomed.
Anywho, long story short, My ranger decided to blow the radiator cap off after a drive. I was able to get it off of the interstate and to a safe location but not until it had began to overheat after puking all the coolant out. After letting it cool and refilling, I was able to limp it home. Suspicions confirmed it was only running on three cylinders (2, 5, and 6 dead), but there was no mixing of coolant in the oil or pressure in the cooling system, so the bottom end is fine. Needless to say I knew the heads needed to come off, so I bit the bullet, even though the head gaskets seemed to be fine.
After getting the heads off, The valves were pitted and slightly warped beyond my comfort zone even with cutting and lapping, so I got reman heads and slapped them in. I did check the new heads for leak down and vacuum and all checked out. block was level and pistons and cylinders looked new. Rockers and pushrods were fine. All injectors checked out resistance wise and clicked. Surgical clean application of new gaskets of course.
Tldr: Fast forward to putting everything back together, the exact same three cylinders are dead, no change whatsoever. cat is glowing red so the injectors are working (unplugging injectors from dead cylinders gets rid of glow, no engine change), and I have spark in all six. No white blue or black smoke from the tailpipe, so the rings are fine. Swapped plugs and wires with no change. Unplugged the maf with no change. no cel or misfire codes, as before the head removal. Lifters all pumped identically and as expected, so no wiped cam.
I'm well experienced from years of wrenching on nearly everything under the sun, but this one has me damn perplexed. I thought maybe the coil could be sus, but I would expect a matching pair of cylinders to have issues if that was the case. Unless there's some hidden limp mode I'm not aware of, I'm totally stumped. Any and all suggestions welcomed.
