4.0 OHV 97 Ranger Cracked Heads What Ones to Order???

[nerd racing]

My dad blew the head gasket on his 97 Ranger 4.0L OHV 4x4 Automatic club cab over the weekend. It perforated cylinder 2 and was blowing tons of white smoke and boiling over the coolant. He was 500 miles from home so he had no choice but to keep up the coolant and drive it home.

We pulled the engine apart last night and today, and the heads are cracked between the valves and are severely warped. We need to order new parts ASAP so we can get it together. The heads we keep seeing for the OHV are listed early 90-94? and then late 95-97, but then some say 90-2000. Which heads are we supposed to order?

we really need to get it back together and right now the heads are the only thing holding us up.

I tried searching but I did not see anything about OHV head variances. I work at a machine shop so if its a dimensional difference I can get out my calipers and measure features, ports, etc...

Thanks in advance!

Nerd Racing

 

[nerd racing]

Two parts sites say to look at different things,

Heart shaped combustion chamber vs. D shaped.

The heads are Heart shaped

Also they say 1.700" exhaust ports approx or 1.400" ports approx

Mine measure 1-11/16" or 1.687"

The 1.700" ones from rock auto cross reference with 93 to 97 years, does that sound right with the combustion chamber size?

If so do I order the early Heads?

The intake is plastic upper and aluminum lower if that helps.

 

[feellnfroggy]

Go to supersixmotorsports.com they will have all the heads you could ever want or need.

 

[nerd racing]

According to their site, customer supplied cores for machining are necessary.

Ours are warped beyond repair and cracked to boot.

Plus my dad is looking for stock replacements.

Still looking for what year range match up to the existing heads. I'll see if i can clean them up enough to find casting numbers.

 

[nerd racing]

Ended up getting some online, based on combustion chamber shape, the "heart" shaped chamber.

 

[feellnfroggy]

glad to hear you found a fix, sorry i couldnt be more help. I just assumed you already checked local junkyards.

 

[nerd racing]

I did, but then my dad decided that he didn't want to risk putting something in that he didn't know the history of and wanted to get new ones with improved castings.