loosing coolant out exhaust? WTF?

[focusmaniaczx3]

my buddy has a 2000 2.5L 2wd automatic. he recently blew the head gasket. he fixed it and in the process did a mild P&P (just knocked the factory roughness out) as well as cleaning it up really well and removing the A/C which didnt work anyway. put everything back together but couldnt get the timing quite right. he drove it around like that for a week or two and noticed he was loosing some coolant. we couldnt figure out why and just assumed the overflow tank had a crack in it since he spent alot of time sitting on it while working on it. the other day we tweaked the timing again and got it very close but still not right. just loosened some tension on the timing belt and turned the cam a few teeth and then tried it out. anyway he called me earlier to tell me he finally figured out where the coolant was going because apparently it got alot worse. apparently its all dumping out into the exhaust somehow. he is sure the head gasket was done properly and it has apparently been doing this since the job was done but wasnt doing it before. what are any potential causes for this? i know a blown head gasket, cracked/warped head could cause it but im wishing for other possibilities. anything i can check for without pulling the head again?

 

[Downey]

i bet the head has a nice crack in it and when the coolant gets under pressure it pushed the crack bigger and leaks.

 

[focusmaniaczx3]

thats what im thinking too.....

anybody got an idea that could lead to a happier end result even if its only a snowball's chance in hell?

 

[rurouni20xx]

yeah ported into the water jacket in the head either way new head. thats why you have head sent to machinist and magnaflux inspected just in case when you blow a gasket, could hav had a fine gasket and actually a cracked head.

 

[Downey]

^^ i agree take the head off and take it to a true machine shop and have them check it

 

[focusmaniaczx3]

found another perfect head for cheap or maby free. at least we think its perfect from what we were told. the engine it was on had a trashed bottom end. we are gonna pick it up soon and take it directly to a machine shop to get checked out and my buddy wants to mill it down a little to bump up the compression. how much would you suggest milling the head to bump compression to get the most out of 93 octane? 40 thousandths? this is still gonna be a daily driver truck but he just wants a little more oomph, so no extreme extreme way out there stuff that would result in 12:1 comression or something like that. also while im thinking about it. is there anybody that does tuning for the 2.5l ranger? and can you get a flasher device like a SCT X-Calibrater 2 or 3 for the ranger? my buddy hasnt had any luck finding stuff and neither have i. it is possible that we are both just idiots however....

 

[rurouni20xx]

if your going to look into headshaving etc you need to blueprint the engine and go for the displacement you really want. you can tune it with a calibrator just have to find the one for your application, and while your at if if your tuning it yourself better get and install a wideband o2 sensor so you can see what your doing while going down the road. there are other options to headshaving you can actually get different thickness headgaskets to raise and lower your compression as well slightly. your worst problem is going to be in the deck clearance (clearance between the top of the piston and the edge of the block, when at tdc you can measure this with a micrometer.) this is area plus your head gasket thickness and chamber cc is what makes up your total combustion chamber area. the displacement of the piston at bottom dead center vs top dead center is your compression ratio, and accurate measurement of all of these parts in your engine and how far you go will determine it. there isnt a real set measurement to go by to reduce your chamber cc simply because engines wear differently and castings are imperfect, you need to measure it and determine what you want to do on your own. 10.5 to 11:1 is the safest margin for premium only fuel to be run. you can go as high as 12.8 to one if the tune is right, but thats a lot of work in the ignition/fuel dept and dyno testing to get that one right. since your looking for more power and you have the head off you may want to consider a cam or simply oversize valves and mild porting. keep in mind cam route wise you would want an experienced mechanic to install it for you and always change rockers and the cam at the same time.

 

[focusmaniaczx3]

i have some very very good news but first i want to ask what cam you would suggest and then who does the best tunes in the ranger community for the 2.5? im not that experienced with rangers. now if you want to know how to tear a focus apart and put it back together and build it to hold 35psi of boost and make 700whp then im the guy to BS with. but my buddy owns a ranger and i know directly next to nothing about it.
in the focus community there are a select few people who sell these devices
http://www.sctflash.com/X3.php
and a base tune to go with it. you use the device along with a wideband o2 sensor/gauge as an analog input to datalog. you send the datalog to the tuner via e-mail and he sends you a new tune via e-mail. you repeat this process a few times until the tune is perfect. basically dyno tuning over the web. sort of.
anyway THIS^^^ is what i would like to try and do for my buddy because this is what i know how to do and nobody locally who owns or runs a dyno knows jack about properly tuning a ranger.


okay okay onto the good news. i went back to jump his truck off today, well last night because i havent been to sleep yet, and drove it over to his step dad's to work on it more. we first cranked it and the sucker sent smoke out the exhaust so bad between the time he cranked it and pulled out of the parking lot that i could barely see to follow him out in my car. we drove maby half a mile to the gas station. cranked it back after he got some gas and it didnt smoke NEARLY as bad as it was earlier. jumped onto the highway for about 15 miles or so maby and i noticed that as we went i couldnt see any smoke. when we got off the highway and were sitting at the stop sign i still couldnt see any smoke. when we hit a strait stretch near his step dad's he nailed the gas and took off like a bat out of hell. i had my window down and listened and watched. no smoke smell, no visible smoke, and the truck sounded like it did before he blew the gasket in the first place (at least to my untrained ear). we let the truck cool for a few hours and upon start up there was a tiny amount of smoke that dissipated after it warmed up. let it sit again for several more hours and about another 15-20 miles. upon start up i couldnt see ANY smoke. is it possible that due to the extreme cold weather around here since he did the head gasket that it simply took this long to seal properly? until yesterday and today the temp at night has been between 10 and 25 degrees every night and during the day we have not seen over 35. i really dont know what to think. he said the temperature gauge in the truck actually climbed to where it was supposed to be and held there like normal about halfway down the highway to his step dads whereas it had been reading all the way on cold. to me this would suggest that it is holding pressure and the coolant has either stopped leaking thru the crack in the head (if there is one) for some reason or the gasket finally sealed properly giving the same result. it seems to be holding fluid in the radiator and overflow tank. and he says its running much much better than it was even though it still needs the timing adjusted more. opinions anybody? im still suspicious of that head but by god it IS running better

 

[rurouni20xx]

sounds more like the head gasket didnt have proper time to seal, as far as smoking is concerned if its bad at idle and when you drive around it quits but twinges at idle id be looking at valve guides/seals. go to rogueperformance.com, he is an sctflashtuner dealer and does 3.0 v6s like that, try emailing him about the 2.5 and see what he can do for you. that is the best way to do it in my opinion, i tried emailing bamachips about my 2.3 ranger for something similar (for my obd1 engine...o i hate the lack of tuning options wish mine was as easy as an sctflashtuner or similar device...) from what ive seen they have been making chips for the ranger but no reply as of yet. my laptop was stolen from my apt wednesday along with my ps3 and a few games so im accessing the forum at work on my lunch break...sorry about the response lag...

 

[schlutzer]

I think you might be okay now, just be checking those fluid everyday to make sure there isnt any mixing.

 

[myold96]

water out of tailpipe

it could have ben one of two things either your water cooled muffler bearings went bad or when you blew the head gasket it filled the exhaust up with water and it took a while to get it hot enough to burn it out. p.s. recheck your head bolt torque after a while even though thet say no retorque cat iron and aluminun expand at different rate and it takes awhile to settle in like the lug bolts on your wheels after 10 miles or so retorque them

 

[Twister]

it could have ben one of two things either your water cooled muffler bearings went bad or when you blew the head gasket it filled the exhaust up with water and it took a while to get it hot enough to burn it out. p.s. recheck your head bolt torque after a while even though thet say no retorque cat iron and aluminun expand at different rate and it takes awhile to settle in like the lug bolts on your wheels after 10 miles or so retorque them

Water cooled muffler bearing? Also you revived a nearly 4 year old thread. Props for searching though.

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 2

 

[adsm08]

I'm honestly not sure whether I should just laugh and start the day out with a good joke or report it as spam.

I'm gonna go with the first one today.

 

[Mark_88]

I had a muffler bearing rust out once...never replaced it though and the truck still runs fine...

Four year old post...I think this guy is working his way back from a time warp...just landed a few years out of today...should be up to date shortly the way he is going though...