Ok, I'll explain fully to get a good answer. I have a 1996 Ranger Splash 3.0, the trucks

Odm stopped working about 5 or more years ago and and say's 288,000. So I'm sure it

has 300K to 350K miles on it. It over heated on me one day and found the water pump

finally went out. So I just replaced the timing chain cover gasket, water pump & gasket.

After doing that I decided to replace the plugs and bought some plugs. While taking the

plugs out I found that the #1 cylinder plug was missing the electrode and when I say

missing I mean it was gone. I put in the new plugs and it's been running fine for about two

weeks. Wasn't missing, leaking water or smoking. I drove it around on my days off and on

the way home it over heated again. Checked everything but couldn't find any leaks and

it wasn't blowing smoke at this time. I let the truck sit for a few days then did a flush on it

yesterday. It started smoking and got pretty heavy at times. I checked the oil and it's

good....no water mixing with it. Today I decided to do a compression test. I let it warm up,

took all the plugs out and sawc ylinder #1 had antifreeze comming out of it. So now I

know where all my water is going and that I'm buring water and not oil. All cylinder's show

about the same amount of compression 175. Even the one thats burning the water. I'd

have thought it would have been lower than the others but I guess with water getting in the

cylinder it up's the compression like oil does. Now that I have given a full picture of whats

happened what do you guys say. BlownHead Gasket? Cracked Head? I'm ruling out

cracked block because no water in the oil. Now I know my options are either replace the

heads buy a used engine or buy a long block to put in it. What do you guy's think?

 

What color is your antifreeze? If its still green, then you may have a lower intake gasket leak. thats a pretty common thing to leak to.
Is there a puddle under the truck after you've parked it for a night or so?
is there smoke on start up? or at any time while driving?

 

Yes, the antifreeze is green and it's getting in the #1 cylinder.
Yes, it did have a very small puddle under it this morning.
Yes, it does smoke now. It's over heated about 6 times now. Really bad one time to where I lost power so I killed it and let it cool on the side of the road.
It smokes very little on start up but gets heavier after a few mins of running.
I just don't want to waste money so I'm trying to pin point the problem.

 

Whats the oil look like?

Does the coolant cap or resevoir tank have any chocolate looking soot on/in it?

thats alot of miles so i think if you up for the task of a engine swap and some other things that go along with that then i say go for it...otherwise prob do heads and gaskets

 

How much antifreeze is left in the rad/reservoir? if its smoking, something has go to be burning, and if its antifreeze, i have a feeling its a lower intake issue,

 

Yea, it's burning antifreeze for sure. I'm just thrown off because of the compression numbers. I would have thought the cylinder with the problem would have been lower than the rest. I'd hate to start something without having all my replacement parts ready but I guess I'll open it up to see how the water's getting in the cylinder.