For a few months now, I've had a small radiator leak. I've been filling it with water (it's still warm here in Georgia & I was procrastinating about putting a new radiator in it) I forgot to educate my wife about it, she's been driving it a few days. This morning, it overheated, started smoking and she (I hate to say this), filled the reservoir with cold water And started driving home. She called me and told me what happened & said now it's smoking and I hear a bad sound from engine). I said just get back here - (she was about 3 miles from home).
I let it cool down, the reservoir was full. Started it, it died after a few seconds. Looked & found no leaks from water pump, etc. Started again & died within a few seconds. 3rd try, started it & revved the engine - it kept running. after a minute, it let me idle it & I started looking. No weird sounds, no leaks. After 5 minutes, temp gauge showed normal, I decided to drive around the block. I didn't get it out of the driveway. As soon as I engaged transmission & put it under load, I saw smoke coming from passenger side. Temp gauge started going up.
Still no leaks on the driveway, but smoke was hard to figure out where it was coming from. White smoke from the tailpipe definitely, but engine smoke seemed to be coming from water pump area, or valve cover area. Oil level is fine, but removing the oil cap revealed a lot of white smoke coming out.
That's where I'm at, don't know what to do next. 1989 Ranger with 15,000 miles on a rebuilt engine. Am I F'ckd?

 

Head crack is far more likely on a 2.9 than a block issue.

 

OK, I'm talking about things above my pay grade. Is a head crack fixable? Is it a "better" problem than a cracked block?

 

No, on the cracked block

Probably on blown head gasket or cracked head

No coolant/water in the oil is a big PLUS, that can ruin the engine

You can do a FREE Glove test to see if head gasket or head is cracked, and where/which cylinders
Read here: https://www.ranger-forums.com/2-9l-3...engine-152104/

Metal expands when heated, the head gasket is sandwiched between the metal head and metal block
Gravity being what it is and coolant/water being what it is means any loss of coolant lowers the levels in the HEADS not the block.
So loss of coolant means the heads get hotter not the block
As the heads heat up their metal expands, since they are held in place by bolts they can only expand DOWN, against the block, this puts the head gasket in a bad place, lol, "hard place and a rock" so to speak
So over heating CRUSHES the head gaskets, some heads have weaker spots in the casting, 2.9l and 4.0l heads do.
Between the valve seats is the weak spot, if the head metal expands too much then they can crack, need to remove them and have them tested unless crack is visible/obvious

So first do the Glove test and see what you are up against, then you can choose the best course

Future reference
So at the first sign of over heating, on any engine really, NEVER try to make it home, pull over and wait for engine to cool down.
Repairing heads or head gasket will cost $400-$900 if you do all the work yourself.
If you pull over and wait for engine to cool down, then start it up and drive a few more miles and wait again for cool down, repeat as needed.
If it takes you 4 hours to get home then you were making $100/hour by waiting, maybe even $200 and hour, lol, waiting is worthwhile

 

I had the Freeze Plugs on the rear of my 2.9L Heads rot out.
Stick your fingers on the back side of the head and see if you can find a through hole.

Cost 9 bills to get it fixed and the truck was under an extended warranty, Ford didn't want to pay... took them to court, they finally settled out of court, paid the bill, returned the initial warranty payment and got a little for grief and aggravation too.
I didn't like taking Ford to court but as it turned out we didn't make it there.

 

Thanks everybody for replies, turns out it's a blown head gasket. So, for now, it will become an ornament in the backyard until I get some $$ up. Luckily I have a cheap GOOD mechanic.