4.0 Head gasket replacement

[jt2ma71]

Hi i have a quick question.

I have several reasons to believe the head gasket in my ranger is gone or on its way out. Its a 99 with the 4.0 OHV. It was down approx. 1 liter of coolant, a couple days back, when i first got it, i topped it up because it was a little low, figured the previous owner just didnt keep it up. Topped it up, but started thinking, the coolant is not leaking externally, there is no signs of coolant leakage at all, the truck has never overheated, but there are some tell-tale signs, rough idle, intermittent o2 sensor code for the passenger side bank. The other thing is, which makes sense, when the truck is driven hard, and parked for the night, in the morning it will crank, start stumble for about 10 seconds then idle fine, a couple days back it actually stalled when it was stumbling, first time.

It would make sense, coolant seeps into the cylinder, the engine stumbles to get that liquid out, the rough idle i never really put too much thought into it, being a domestic truck, but it makes more sense now, rough idle, intermittent o2 code, coolant going somewhere and its not an external leak. I guess that would also explain the lack of power, and terrible gas mileage. 170 miles to a tank..

Anyways, i plan on doing the head gasket only, i am a apprentice tech, i have the tools, and knowledge to do it, but i am only doing the bare bones on this thing. I honestly, dont care enough about this truck to fully rebuild the motor, i only drive it maybe 4-5 times a month, or whenver my maxima is being worked on.

Quesiton is:

I am aware the head bolts are TTY, so id obviously need a set of headbolts,and id most likely just get the master gasket set and replace all applicable gaskets. What head gaskets do you guys recommend? Id probably get one of those felpro gasket sets and pick up 2 better quality head gaskets. So other then the head bolts, and gaskets, i guess thats pretty much it right? Other then minor things like fluids and such anything else major?

May sound like a noob, i am a import guy, im not use to working on push rod engines, i think the very first engine i ever rebuilt was a old ford 2.3 from a tempo at school 5 years back or so.

Thanks guys!

 

[Psychopete]

It would make sense, coolant seeps into the cylinder, the engine stumbles to get that liquid out, the rough idle i never really put too much thought into it, being a domestic truck, but it makes more sense now, rough idle, intermittent o2 code, coolant going somewhere and its not an external leak. I guess that would also explain the lack of power, and terrible gas mileage. 170 miles to a tank..

Do you have access to a leak down tester? If coolant can get into the cylinders, the bad cylinder will cause air bubbles to appear out of the radiator fill during a leak down test. This would verify, also, just a visual inspection of plugs might even give it away as well (does it look steam cleaned or wet?). Do you have coolant in your oil? What about a simple compression test?

You might have a small leak that's hitting the exhaust manifold that you might never see, or else where. Absolutely verify that it's the problem before doing the repair (that's probably going to be important later on )..

May sound like a noob, i am a import guy, im not use to working on push rod engines, i think the very first engine i ever rebuilt was a old ford 2.3 from a tempo at school 5 years back or so.

2.3L HSC found in the Tempo is a push rod engine... Good little engines. My '93 has 127K and runs well.

As far as parts, typically it's the top end gaskets and head bolts, but I am not at all familiar with changing a head gasket on that particular engine.

Pete

 

[shadetree]

It could be intake manifold gaskets. A common problem on the 4.0 pushrod..shady