Several Problems???

[jeremyctry]

Okay So I have a 2000 Ford Ranger 4x4 with the 4.0 and the Off-road package. So a brief rundown of history I am the second owner. I purchased the truck from my father sold it back to him and then bought it back a couple years ago. The truck has had a coolant leak for years, that I've never been able to track down but It was a small one and never caused problems. however after I sold it back to my father the head gasket blew and he replaced the engine. After I bought the truck back, I had an inspection done and the head gaskets where leaking. now I have replaced the head gaskets. and the coolant leak is still there only worse I'm losing about a gallon of coolant every 3 months. but Im also losing 1-2 quarts of oil in the same time period. there is white smoke coming from the exhaust. and a burning plastic smell coming from under the hood. on top of that this morning out of the blue the truck has started missing. and is now throwing 3 codes; P1151, P0442, P0304. I have what appears to be a pin hole oil leak in the timing chain cover gasket. And a somewhat larger coolant/Oil leak on the passenger side (but not sure which it is or where exactly it's coming from) sorry but it's raining and snowing and dark. I intend to tackle the issues tomorrow or Monday. but I'm looking for guidance/comments and or suggestions on probable causes and a plan of attack. I forgot to mention that the oil looks great there is no coolant in the oil.

 

[adsm08]

White smoke is burning coolant. It isn't making it into the oil before it is being burnt off in the engine.

The bad gasket is probably on the driver's side.

 

[jeremyctry]

I was was told that the burning plastic smell white smoke and running rough where indicative of a bad Cat is that true or is it definitely a bad head gasket?

 

[adsm08]

The plastic smell is symptomatic of a coolant-contaminated cat, the smoke could be the same. Simple contamination does not account for your coolant loss.

Poor performance can be an indication of a bad cat, or a number of other things.

I would do a compression test down the driver's side just because of the #4 misfire.

 

[jeremyctry]

okay so i did the radiator combustion test today and at the 10 min mark the liquid was a bluish green. then the thermostat opened and it turned a greenish brown im assuming the brown is from noticeable rust build up. I will be doing the compression test tomorrow, but for my own education i have some questions. 1; why would a new head gasket go bad so fast? 2 why would it only effect cylinder 4? 3 once a cat gets contaminated will it ever stop blowing white smoke? and 4 I pulled the plug from cylinder 4 and aside from some red build up from poor quality gas and additives it looks great, wasn't wet at all so when i do the compression test if there isn't more than a 15% difference in cylinder compression what will that mean? and if there is what will it mean? also don't think i mentioned it in the OP but its not missing at idle and I attached a cple of pics of it smoking at 37 degrees.

 

[chillidog10129]

If your compression numbers are good I would check all the hoses and the radiator tanks as the plastic breaks down and starts a very fine leak that is only noticable when it gets low (just had that problem on my F350) replaced the radiator and its good now. It is also possible that the intake manifold is cracked these are just some thoughts. The miss could be a bad valve, I have repaired several vehicles with the crazy miss that turned out to be just that.

 

[blkops]

might not be the headgasket could be the intake, cracked head. the p1151 is the oxygen sensor since it is contaminated and cylinder 4 misfire at least youu have somewhere to start

 

[PanamaExpat]

^^
Very easily could be the intake as there is a water port right next to number 4.