New Ranger, What's the problem?

[PrestonNeal]

Hey guys! First post, just aquired my first Ford Ranger over the weekend. It's a 1990 2.9L V6 automatic. Bought it Thursday, drove it home no problem. Drove it to work Friday, drove around town doing tag/title footwork etc, still no problem. Drove it to a gig (I'm in a band) Friday night, it started missing gears/shifting hard like the transmission fluid was low. Pulled over to check the ATF and when I popped the hood I noticed light smoke coming from the engine bay. Checked the transmission fluid, dirty colored liquid on the stick. By the time I got to the gig and parked, it refused to shift at all. Wouldn't move forward or reverse. Left it parked overnight, came back Saturday, checked the ATF, and I got a dry stick. Added 3 qts of ATF, checked the coolant reservoir, it was also bone dry. Filled the reservoir up, when I got home I noticed a heavy coolant leak, the reservoir was dry again in an hour. Checked the coolant line running from the reservoir to the radiator, and where it attaches to the reservoir it was just black goo. Pulled it off, replaced it today, refilled the coolant, and let the truck run for about 5 minutes. No more coolant leak, from what I can tell, but now as the truck is running there's what looks like water?? (clear, odorless) dripping under the passenger side, and dripping heavy too. I started getting a burning smell from the engine bay, cut the truck off, and the water?? stopped dripping. I could see light smoke wisps coming from around the oil cap area, still had a burning smell, and I could hear what sounded like a faint crackling/snapping sound on the passenger side of the engine bay. Checked the ATF level again, came back good. I believe there is a small leak somewhere in the transmission fluid, but I haven't been able to find where it's at. I don't know if the engine is overheating, my engine temp gauge does not work (it stays way below cold, never moves). I plan on taking the truck into a mechanic tomorrow, but before I did I wanted to see if anyone has had a similar experience and knows what's causing this stuff...Thanks!

 

[oldyellr]

I would suspect a leak in the transmission cooler line in the rad. As for clear water dripping, it's probably just condensation from the A/C and not related.

 

[PrestonNeal]

Would there still be condensation if the A/C doesn't work? And this seems way heavier than condensation I normally see. Imagine sombody poured a bottle of water over the top of the engine, and it takes about ten seconds for all the water from the bottle to drip down. That's what the drips look like from underneath. And it starts after the truck has been running for less than a minute. I would concur it's probably unrelated to the smoking/burning smell and transmission fluid stuff, but it still seems odd.

 

[PrestonNeal]

I'm going to try putting in a new thermostat, I don't know if the thermostat has ever been changed. The amount of water coming out in addition to the smoke and smell makes me think there's a leak/issue with the water pump. So I'll swap it out after I change the thermostat. Hopefully it's nothing more serious than that...

 

[RonD]

On fuel injected engines there are 2 temp readers, the ECT SENSOR(2 wires) only used by the computer, and the ECT SENDER(1 wire) only used by the dash board gauge
ECT = Engine Coolant Temperature

The Sender is just a simple variable Ground, as it heats up it becomes a better ground and gauge needle goes up.
To test if gauge and wire are OK, unplug the 1 wire from the Sender, and Ground that wire, use a jumper wire or ??, to ground it, turn on the key and gauge needle should go up to HOT, right up to the top.
Remove the Ground and needle should drop to COLD right to the bottom.
If it does this then wire and gauge are OK, replace Sender.

Just as a heads up some vehicle use the opposite type of Sender, but the same test works, when Grounded needle goes to COLD and when unGrounded needle goes to HOT, so opposite of above.
This wasn't used as much because a loose wire would cause driver to think they were over heating

 

[1qaz]

What did your mechanic say Preston? What was the source of the water?