Serious Coolant leak issue

[Redwood650]

Hello all,

05 ranger 3.0 v6 65000 miles. Just recently changed the heads as the valve seats on cyl 2 were burnt. Everything has been great, runs good, no issues, until today. Did and oil change yesterday, and also noticed the coolant reservoir looked a bit low so I added a little bit to it. Drove it to the store last night and everything was fine. Woke up this morning, went to the local DMV (closer than the store is) and when I shut the truck off, I could smell coolant. Looked down and saw it leaking. Temp gauge was normal. Took it home, pinpointed 2 leaks. First was about the right valve cover, but under the upper intake manifold. It was spraying a stream of coolant from somewhere near the intake...

The second was coming from the thermostat gasket, I first thought it was coming from the left head since that is were I first saw a leak but I traced the thermostat leak to near the heads...

Any suggestions? I took some coolant out and I am going to drive it 15 miles to work and see what it does.

 

[Big Jim M]

You did freaking WHAT?? You have coolant leaks and so you did WHAT? Leaks are really easy to find. FIND them and repair them. And put that coolant BACK in there. You will be fortunate if you don't burn your engine up. I betcha the leaks are somewhere you have already took apart and put back together wrong!
Big JIm

 

[bcost882]

mine chooses to leak when it wants to. it will drain the overflow and then go a week and not leak a drop. i can't pin point the leak but it looks like it might be comin from the heads. yea put the coolant back in. if it doesn't need it it will push it into the overflow tank.....thats why it is there. and whats with the vavle seat gettin burned on all the new 3.0s?

 

[fourwheelford]

Sounds like you didn't tighten the manifold bolts down enough or in the right order or maybe something warped and screwed the gasket. That same thing happened to my cousins ram charger when he put a new manifold on it, he didn't tighten it down and it was pissing it all over the place.

 

[Redwood650]

Hacnt been on in a while but figured I would update you guys. The leak came from the thermostat gasket. It failed. It was a brand new gasket and the paper Felpro gasket failed. Later that night I replaced it with a heavy duty Felpro rubber gasket.

 

[Redwood650]

You did freaking WHAT?? You have coolant leaks and so you did WHAT? Leaks are really easy to find. FIND them and repair them. And put that coolant BACK in there. You will be fortunate if you don't burn your engine up. I betcha the leaks are somewhere you have already took apart and put back together wrong!
Big JIm

You make it seem like I did something crazy... The Gasket failed, that was all. It was a wierd thing, it just has a small pressure failure and was shooting water to the bottom the right cylinder head. I drove it because it was a pressurized problem. It wouldnt do it unless the thermostat opened and allowed maximum coolant flow. The time I spent at the dmv must of been long enough to close the thermostat. The Dmv was only a few blocks from my house.

mine chooses to leak when it wants to. it will drain the overflow and then go a week and not leak a drop. i can't pin point the leak but it looks like it might be comin from the heads. yea put the coolant back in. if it doesn't need it it will push it into the overflow tank.....thats why it is there. and whats with the vavle seat gettin burned on all the new 3.0s?

Yea, the burnt valves suck. It wasn't too hard and It only cost me $300 for everything including refman heads with Tungsten valve seats.