A question about my other truck

[tjb]

Hey,

Along with my 84 6.9 I also have a 2000 ford ranger 4x4 with 3.0 v6,
I know this forum is for IDI but was wondering if you guys could help me out?
My ranger has a temp/coolant problem it was taking too long to warm up and when it did it would jump up to hot and then come back down to normal and would not blow warm air out of heater. I did 2 flushes yesterday and then replaced waterpump and thermostat and filled back up with 50/50 new coolant. I drove it last night about 15 miles and everything worked fine, but this morning drove it to town round trip of about 20 miles and the temp gauge jumped up and down again and then back to normal when I got home it had blew coolant out of overflow and was acting like it was overheating but the gauge showed norm and for about 15 min after I shut it off it was blowing air bubbles into overflow. Does anyone have any ideas what is going on? Thanks, and again I know this is for diesels but was hoping someone here could help me.

 

[lotzagoodstuff]

You may have a pocket of air in your cooling system or maybe a blown head gasket.

Some engines have specific coolant fill instructions due to plumbing. Ideally, there should be a bleeder at the highest point in the coolant system to get any air out. Do a search and see if there's anything specific like that in your application.

The warm up, then overheating, bubbles in your coolant does sound like a gasket that is possibly pushing air into your coolant system once it's hot. the next time it boils over smell the vapors coming out of your overflow. If it smells like exhaust you are most likely in for a head gasket job.

Good luck.

 

[timothyr1014]

X2....make sure you get all of the air out of the cooling system as that will cause your exact symptoms....not sure about the rangers config, but on several of my cars I install a T in the heater line with an extra few inches of hose...makes it easy to create a high point for the refillsand burp the system out

 

[Fordsandguns]

My 99 ranger was doing the same thing- blown passenger side head gasket and warped head.

 

[tjb]

My 99 ranger was doing the same thing- blown passenger side head gasket and warped head.

Was yours showing any other signs? I went out and have been trying to bleed air out of system and just now fired it up and ran it for about 20 min and the gauge ran up to norm and no air bubbles or anything funky, so is it maybe just air in system I would think that if the head gasket was blown it would blow air or do something all the time not just sometimes.

 

[Goofyexponent]

My 300 Inline did the same thing. I had a shattered right hand and never got the head off the motor. Bought my diesel and never looked back.

I will vote head gasket as well. My truck built up enough pressure to blow the upper radiator hose right off!

 

[Fordsandguns]

Was yours showing any other signs? I went out and have been trying to bleed air out of system and just now fired it up and ran it for about 20 min and the gauge ran up to norm and no air bubbles or anything funky, so is it maybe just air in system I would think that if the head gasket was blown it would blow air or do something all the time not just sometimes.

Mine first started by throwing a code for misfire on cylinder #2 and running rough. Did a compression test and came up with 75 psi. 2nd test was 70psi. Wet test brought it up to 130psi so I thought it was the rings. At the time this was my dd so I started looking for an engine but then came across the CC in my sig. While I was working on it the ranger started burning coolant and blowing the over flow lid off and doing the variations in the temp readings. Then it started mixing oil in the water.
Fortunately, thanks to my dad, I was only without wheels for a week.
Used running 3.0's are hard to come by around here. Unless they are out of a taurus.
Being that it was my only vehicle i didn't want to tear into it to rebuild it. I don't have a shop to do it in anyway. So I limped it as far as I could while repairing the 91.
I hope all you have is air in the cooling system but it sounds like a head gasket to me.

 

[johnnyb1]

Most shops,even Advanced,Autozone,ect. can test the gases in the radiator and usually tell if it's a gasket/head problem. Does kinda sound like it

 

[tjb]

thanks for all the input. Today when I got home from work I pulled the thermostat back out to drill a hole in it hoping that would help get some air out and when I pulled it there was no coolant in engine shouldnt it have been full? Anyways I filled engine with coolant then put thermo back in with rtv now waiting for it to set up so I can go try it again. If I can get it runnin I may take it in and see if autozone can check for codes and test my coolant.