Overheated and running bad.

[93 4x4 ranger]

Sometime in December my truck overheated while I was going up a hill so I limped it home at idle or a little gas keeping it in the normal range. I got home and let the coolant stop boiling and filled it with coolant which I didn't have to add much. After this it overheated again and I took it too a shop to see if they could figure anything out. They checked it and didn't find anything, but since this happened my performance has been really bad and the sound of the exhaust isn't a pleasant sound. I'm trying to figure out what I might be able to do to fix this. My mileage has also dropped from about 18 to 13 or 14.

 

[fordboi415]

You could have a blown head gasket, or cracked block, did they do a pressure test to find out if your cooling system is functioning and not losing pressure? Did you ever find out why it overheated to begin with?

 

[93 4x4 ranger]

You could have a blown head gasket, or cracked block, did they do a pressure test to find out if your cooling system is functioning and not losing pressure? Did you ever find out why it overheated to begin with?

They did a pressure test and found it normal. I'm not getting any coolant in the oil and I'm not losing coolant or anything like that. I flushed the coolant about a month before this happened and when I attempted to add coolant after I flushed it it only took about a half gallon and I rode around with a bottle of coolant for awhile but it seemed ok so I took it out until that night.

 

[jeffro184]

pull #3 #4 sparkplugs and see if the porclelain is green if so craked heads. if green remove the head and inspect between intake and exhaust valve and will usually see a crack

 

[93 4x4 ranger]

pull #3 #4 sparkplugs and see if the porclelain is green if so craked heads. if green remove the head and inspect between intake and exhaust valve and will usually see a crack

I checked all of the spark plugs for anything and they are all just slightly brown except the front passenger plug as oil on it. I take back that it isn't losing antifreeze. It is, but is very slow. Also I believe this is unrelated but since it overheated I've had issues with starting it when its cold. It takes a couple of key turns to get it to start now where as before I could typically get it to start right away.

 

[99iowa4x4ranger]

in my 99 i had a mysterious coolant loss, and it was head gaskets.. is there smoke alot coming from your exhaust? if there is, it is burning coolant. . and needs new head gaskets and bolts

 

[93 4x4 ranger]

I'm not getting any smoke at all.

 

[Big Jim M]

When it overheated did it puke it's coolant out on the hiway? While driving it home slowly did the temp come back down? You indicate it was boiling...did it only boil when the cap was removed?
As for the oily plug did you put a new one in there? If not do it.
Big JIm

 

[Stranger ranger]

with no symptoms as described above, twenty bucks says its a plugged cat.

 

[93 4x4 ranger]

On the way back the temp dropped in the normal as long as I kept it at idle or a little higher. I could hear it boiling when I got back to the house after I shut it off. I was going to remove the cap and be covered in hot coolant. I didn't replace the plug as it had less than 750 miles on it and I cleaned the oil of it and figured I'd check and see if it was that way again in a couple weeks.

 

[LITTLE FOOT]

with no symptoms as described above, twenty bucks says its a plugged cat.

x2 on that

 

[Stranger ranger]

ask me how i know, go head, ask me, ask me how i know

 

[LITTLE FOOT]

ask me how i know, go head, ask me, ask me how i know

let me guess, it happend to you?

 

[ranger dude]

after you drive it and get up to temp then let it sit over night is it hard to start in the morning and runs a little rough for a few seconds

 

[93 4x4 ranger]

after you drive it and get up to temp then let it sit over night is it hard to start in the morning and runs a little rough for a few seconds

I only drive it about every other day but if its below 40 degrees or so yes it is hard to start and will usually rev up to about 2 grand for a little bit then drop a lot of rpms and then level off just over 1000