Did I blow the motor overheating?

[wwhitlatch]

Been nursing a overheating 95 ranger xlt with the 3.0, agreed on fixing water pump drove home from work after a hard overheating stopped once and let cool, I want to note I’ve replaced thermostat and not seen any leakage. Now for the first time it is idling hard when I restart engine, set to replace pump tomorrow but wanted insight on whether I cracked the head please help ASAP

 

[saskbill]

Been nursing a overheating 95 ranger xlt with the 3.0, agreed on fixing water pump drove home from work after a hard overheating stopped once and let cool, I want to note I’ve replaced thermostat and not seen any leakage. Now for the first time it is idling hard when I restart engine, set to replace pump tomorrow but wanted insight on whether I cracked the head please help ASAP

Could you elaborate a bit on "idling hard"? Is it running rough (like missing on a cylinder)? Or wanting to stall? or making weird (bad) noises?

If something let go, you'll probably sooner or later see coolant trouble symptoms, like bubbling in the radiator, overheating when shut down, change in coolant color, hoses popping etc.

3.0s are pretty tough. I overheated mine in the 91 hauling a load about 50 km. Took a closer look and found the radiator was clogged with dust and dirt on the outside. Blew it out and continued driving the truck after. Had overheating stuff happen - the rad hose popped, and after driving it any distance, the rad would boil when I shut 'er down. Tried replacing thermostat at some point - no help. Accepted that I had serious engine trouble (likely cracked head) - drilled out (2x 1/8" holes) thermostat to try to keep 'er running.

Ran her for 2 years like that - coolant turned brown and she was miserable to start at 40 below a couple times, but otherwise ran pretty OK without overheating. Found a donor Aerostar van with a good 3.0 and a bad tranny and towed it 500 km to the farm with that Ranger in the middle of winter - no problem!

Focused on some other bodywork stuff (and pulling van motor and leaking gas tank replacement and bed replacement etc) and got distracted by life still have to get around to swapping the good motor in - but hoping to drive that truck some more yet!

 

[RonD]

Pretty easy to check if you have a cracked head or blown head gasket

Glove test, posted here: http://www.therangerstation.com/forums/showthread.php?t=175049


Metal expands when heated
The head has the most heat
As the head metal expands it presses down more on the head gasket
As it cools off it shrinks back to "normal" size
So daily driving, heat up and cool down, the pressure on head gasket changes.

When overheated(over expanded) the pressure on the head gasket can crush it causing it to fail.
And expanding metal can reach a point where it cracks.
Either of these failures will cause cylinder pressure to be pushed into cooling system passages in the head, this displaces coolant, pushes it out of the head, which causes more overheating, and excess pressure in the cooling system.
Which is why the Glove test works

 

[Craig0320]

Do a compression test also. My mom run her 3.0 after the radiator blew until the engine shut off. It fan fine that evening. The next day would not even start. Did a compression test and had 50 psi on 4 cylinders.

 

[Ranger850]

Been nursing a overheating 95 ranger xlt with the 3.0, agreed on fixing water pump drove home from work after a hard overheating stopped once and let cool, I want to note I’ve replaced thermostat and not seen any leakage. Now for the first time it is idling hard when I restart engine, set to replace pump tomorrow but wanted insight on whether I cracked the head please help ASAP

sounds like what happened to mine. Hoping it was a blown head gasket, it was a bent valve.