cylinder head gasket???????????

[kawasakiman27]

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Hello all! I have a 99' Ranger 3.0 Flex Fuel and just recently rebuilt the whole cooling system do to leaks in the radiator and water pump. All was fine for about a month untill now. Now I'm getting overpressure in the cooling system via bubbles in the overflow (already replaced to caps). To make a long story short, I've diagnosed the problem to be cylinder head gasket leakage on the combustion stroke. Because #1 the system bubbles in the overflow even when the truck is running (smells bad) and #2 ive performed a cooling system leak check and pressure dropped from around 17 psi to under 14 in about five to ten minutes with no external leak anywhere. As for pressure in the system, can this only be narrowed down to what ive described? The truck shows no other symptoms ie.. overheating, frothy oil, or white smoke. Now would seem to be the best time to fix it huh? Should I do a compression test or just go for broke and tear it apart? thank you, your help is greatly appriciated.

 

[rurouni20xx]

heres the easy way to tell...pull the plugs spin it over and see if you have water coming out. its a bad leak if thats the case. the cooling system pressure is approx 15, and a leakdown like that over 10 mins makes me think more of a bad sealing area on the tester itself. put the tester back on jack it up to 15 psi and check the fittings for leaks w/ soapy water solution. joy hand soap and water make the best bubbles. (used to test for air leaks on military trks...) if no leak at the tester and you still experience bleed down w/ the plugs out jack the pressure up to about 16 and listen to the cylinders and see if you can hear water trickling into a cylinder or a hissing sound from the plug holes. this would indicate a pressure leak into the cylinder itself via head gasket or cracked head.

 

[kawasakiman27]

Thats an awsome idea, thank you!

 

[rurouni20xx]

not a prob.

 

[88gt]

i am haveing the same problems at the moment also. i ran a compression test and the numbers were fine. if you keep you coolant topped off and drive it, eventually it will blow some more and you could have white smoke out the pipe. i just started having smoke out the pipe. im planning on spending time under the hood this weekend replaceing the head gasket. The fuel and exhaust is leaking inot the cooling jacket. smells real bad. i dont have water in the oil. BUt the sooner you do the deed, the better off you will be. did you notice a slight drop in power and fuel mileage by any chance?

 

[kawasakiman27]

yes as a matter of fact i have.

 

[88gt]

well, welcome to the club then. sounds like you have about 150 bucks to spend and a day or so that you dont know what to do with...my mileage dropped by about 3.5mpg. drove it for a while like this keeping the coolant topped off and yesterday it got to blowing smoke when i got on it to get up a hill. i parked it till i get to work on it this weekend.

 

[kawasakiman27]

i got two reman heads pretty cheap and just need the gasket set and im gonna change the cam sensor and synchro too while im at it. I dont know how many miles are on the motor it came from a junkyard truck. the original motor blew due to that synchro going bad. Hey, good luck with your head job and take pics. I'll take some too and post them later.