hello,

I have a 1989 ford ranger xlt with the 2.9l v6,
how do you tell the difference between a cracked cylinder head and a cracked engine block? I have the following symptoms.

strong sweet smell coming from exhaust
sound of misfire
engine misfire codes
excessive white smoke from exhaust
loss of coolant at a rapid rate
coolant in engine oil
poorly running engine
stalls at idle
sound of cylinder no burning at correct time
really strong smell of gas
really rough idle sound of rod knock

I have already done the head gaskets and that didn't help so after some research people say its the cylinder heads but I think it could also be a cracked engine block. how can you tell the difference? thanks joshua

 

Cracked head wouldn't cause coolant in the oil

Blown head gasket can cause coolant in the oil, or a cracked block can or cracked intake manifold on a V6/V8

Generally speaking a cracked block wouldn't cause coolant in a cylinder, so no white smoke or misfires, just coolant in the oil

Did you have the heads pressure tested and "surfaced" before reinstalling, always good to do that, a warped head shows same symptoms as head gasket issue

You could drain the oil and leave drain plug off
Drain coolant so its below head level in engine, i.e. remove upper rad hose at engine end and let coolant flow out, then reattach it

Use a cooling system pressure tester on the rad cap opening, its a solid rad cap with a gauge and hand pump
Pump it up to 20psi
If coolant starts to flow out of oil pan drain plug then most likely a cracked block, very very unusual for a 2.9l but possible

If no coolant flow then refill radiator to the top, pull one heater hose at firewall to let air out of engine for full refill, and retest
If you now have coolant/water flowing out drain plug then problem is in the head/intake

You should disable spark(pull coil wire), and crank engine over a few times for each pressure test