ok, gaskets in hand, check
new head ordered, check
talked to my company's mechanic finally(lots of experience with these 3.0s), and he said the heads are known to warp upon removal, why? he dosnt know but they do! he agreed the copper spray gasket was a temp fix at best and that it probably wore out over time and either have the old head milled or better yet just get a new complete head. he also said that the tiny bubbles ( aka bubbles in your glass of soda or beer! his words not mine! lol)in the water indicate a very small leak in the head gasket. smaller the bubbles the smaller the leak

so new head will be here this week for a next weekend replacement!

and i think my truck is haunted! this morning the temps were as they should be(150 and 110) 45 min drive on the interstate and in town driving, even pulling a trailer that weighed as much as my lil mistress! this afternoon going home 190and 160! wtf!!!!!!

 

Not even aluminum heads are so unstable that they warp if one is not careful removing the head bolts.
I find that a cast iron head can only warp and sometimes crack if it is badly over heated.
I'm going to disagree with your mechanic.
If your old head is warped, I'm going to say it was machined incorrectly.
The only way to tell is with a proper straight edge and a set of feeler gauges.
Anything more the 4 thou, and will leak.

As for it over heating, it burns water in very small amounts, so in the afternoon, it was probably low enough that it was running hot again.

Also, there are probably tiny air bubbles entering the cooling system due to a marginally leaking head gasket.
It's quite possible that there are air pockets developing around the water pump impellor, causing air locks.

 

ikr jeff, i feel the same about this head! cast iron, never machined factory installed head, bolts removed cold in revers order of installation. i drive to much not to keep an eye on temps. never been over heated since ive owned it, or before i owned it as from what i was told by my nephew and the ford dealership he bought it from. it was a grampa truck and mostly towed behind a rv! by the original owner and he estimated about 50k miles actually drivin by the trucks own power when he sold it! im the third owner and i dont plan on getting rid of her any time soon! that why i call her "lil mistress", besides bills she gets all me money! rotf

 

I think once you put the other head on, things should be fine.
Knock on wood...

 

lol just got her put back together, and letting her come up to temp with the heat on full blast, now letting her cool off! temp gauge never moved past 145! so far so good, when i pulled the lever on the rad cap, nothing, no gurgle so i m happy so far!

oh and she is running alot smother that before

 

got a 100 mile drive every day this week so ill post more when i get home tomorrow!

 

Touch-wood, but every thing seems fine now.
There's pretty much nothing left to go over !

Could you tell from the old gasket where it was leaking ?

 

no, but i did find a ruff spot on the block between 2 water passages down by the exhaust manifold. not a mating surface but all the same

 

ron and jeff, you will get a kick out of this! i went back out after it cooled down, all was good! started her back up to warm her up again and locked the doors cause i started it with a spare key. got distracted, ate dinner, went to bed around 9 pm cause of the work thing. get up this morning at 4 am, head out the door at 5am and she is still running! temp is at 145 but trans was sitting at 140, i oh shitted, hopped in and left for work! she only burned a quarter tank running all night! rotf!!!!!

 

Man if someone did that in my neighbor hood I would have been banging on their door to shut the bloody thing off !
I sleep with my window open all night (if I can), so I hear everything.

That's just too funny though ! Working too hard maybe ???

 

Good story to tell but not an action you want to actually repeat

 

ok got her looking right almost, just got to get her running right, she purrs like a kitten but is still runnin hot and eatin coolant! im at a cross point with her now! running hotter than ever, 200 + temp with a 185 thermostat! she has never ran this hot. shot her with a digital temp reader and this is crazy, im supprised she hasent blown up yet!

 

You don't have TTY head bolts...
Did you re-torque the head after the engine cooled down ?

Maybe it just needs filling up or is it just using coolant again ?

I'm running out if things to suggest.

 

jeff, no tty bolts and the fel pro gaskets say not to retourqe, still using coolant. im gona bypass the heater core again,cause i think it is leaking but cant tell. plus im gona bypass the heater control valve this time as well

 

Any of those things you would see leaks and smell it.

Here's what I'm thinking and you're not going to like it.
The block itself is out and it needs resurfacing.
Didn't you say somewhere that it wasn't in the best of condition ?

Pull the plugs again and see if their clean.

Usually leaks from the heater core/control valve etc. manifest themselves right away, not a number of days later.

 

ya i didnt want to hear that jeff, but i do do alot of miles and i had vinegar in the system before the original problem happened. I AM running water right now since i am tearing it down so much! if could just fix/isolate one problem at a time i could deal with it!

 

ok heater core is leaking, ill keep that bypassed for now. still running hotter than ever! no water lose, BUT and this is a big but, it still wont pull from the over flow tank! new hose from rad to overflow. do a 50 mile run on the interstate at 75-80 she will be at 200+ with a 165 degree thermostat in. get off interstate and the fan clutch has def kicked in, sounds like a jet taking off when i step on the gas and the temp will drop to 150ish! the engine purs like a kitten but this heat thing is kickin my butt. what ya think ron, jeff and anybody else? any input is welcome and appreciated.

 

If the coolant won't pull from the over flow tank, then it's sucking somewhere _ simple as that.
So if tank is full after the engine has fully cooled down and the rad is not right full after removing the cap, then there is an air leak.
When the rad cap is removed on a cold engine, it should be "right up".


Did you ever do that pressure test on it ?

If this was my truck, my next step would be a pressure test.

 

ok new update. no codes, all new hoses, no thermostat, heater core and valve bypassed for now (cause they both leak), both heads are brand new. i have rode thousands of miles and she still runs hot! 185-205 without a thermostat is way hot.she still uses antifreeze\water! compression test is 155-160ish. all plugs on pass bank look fine, drivers bank is all over the place. my new question is if i got a right head gasket on the left bank would that cause it to run hot? due to the coolant passages in the gasket being differant from front to back? and as far as it useing coolant i think that is a lower intake leaking into the head air intake cause there is water in/on the the tail pipe. worst case is cracked block, but over heating is'nt what started this mess. ron/jeff what are your thinks?

oh and she runs 165-175ish in the mornings all depends on temp and humidity

 

You guys are obviously all into this already, but i wanted to satisfy my own curiosity here.

Why do you say it's using coolant? Are you having to top up the radiator?

 

Cracked block, really ???
It would have to have been over heated pretty bad for that to happen.

About the head gaskets, the holes in the front of the block are blocked off on both banks so the coolant is forced to the back of the heads, other wise, the one bank (or both, if you got them both wrong) would not get adequate flow.
It would simply go from the water pump to the top of the head _ just at the front.
So I suppose it would run hot, but I have also read that guys who plant a Taurus engine in a Ranger and don't change the gaskets, that it seems to run with out over heating.

But if you're still losing coolant or it's disappearing some where, that's more then likely he cause of the over heating.
The coolant is getting replaced by air, so it will over heat or run hot at the very least.

I just don't know where the coolant is going, maybe there is a flaw or crack that has developed in the lower intake manifold.
And coolant on the tail pipe _ how far back ?
"Drivers bank is all over the place", so you mean the plugs are not a consistent colour _ some are steam cleaned, some are fowled ???

Maybe the new heads or one of them is faulty _ maybe it should be pressure tested.
Maybe the heads have been machined too much where the lower intake manifold "mates", and the lower intake manifold can't seal properly ???

I can't remember if you rebuilt the entire engine or just did the heads.
Was the block surface ever checked with a straight edge, that should be done.
You can have a new head and it won't mate to the block if it's warped (for what ever reason)
I think a head gasket can tolerate 5 thou at most _ over-all...
If it was just the heads, maybe if you cleaned the engine bay and engine, it may be easier to find the coolant leak, assuming it's on the outside.


This was the original problem "RUST" _ click on the links.
It wasn't leaking coolant at the time, but after all the fixing, replacing heads and such, it's now losing or using coolant _ it's been going on for quite some time.
https://www.ranger-forums.com/2-9l-3...7/#post2108345

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5...hyUERZdm9TZzhB

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5...hqOFd4QnZiVG5n

 

i do a hundred + mile drive every day jeff and i check the fluids and plugs nightly. with the engine hot right off the interstate. tail pipe is wet when i get home. engine is dry. open the relief lever on raid cap and the overflow gurgles. plugs vary day by day on drivers bank, aka one day normal looking other days steam cleaned other days wet with fuel. and my milage is all over the place to! never over heated, just runns hotter than it should with no thermostat. thats why i asked about the head gasket, i know left and right are differnt so if i got a miss labled gasket by chance?

and both heads are new remans from rock auto

 

If you have the correct gaskets, then if you put them on wrong, the other coolant holes won't line up at all and it would leak right away.
I don't have my old gaskets anymore, so I can't advise you, but in the screen shot, the two holes at the front of the engine are blocked off.
This forces the coolant to the back of the heads/block.

Only you will know of you have put them in correctly or you have ordered the correct ones.
Ordering a gasket set for a Taurus (front wheel drive) would cause the coolant flow to be incorrect for a rear wheel drive ranger.
I don't think you ordered the wrong gasket set though.

I don't think that's your problem, I think the drivers side head is defective _ always has been.
Steam cleaned plugs and water in a hot exhaust shows there is a bad seal.
I think someone screwed up when it was resurfaced or it wasn't checked for cracks.

But I don't think it's cracked, because the problem keeps moving around (different plugs show being steam cleaned when you check them)
The head surface is not true so the head gasket seals inconsonantly causing different plugs on that bank to misfire (wet with gas) or be steam cleaned.

If it's with in a year I would contact Rock Auto and set up a warranty claim.
Assuming that the reman heads are warrantied for a year _ maybe only 3 months.

Steam cleaned plugs shows coolant is getting into the combustion chamber, that's a fact.
It can't be the head gasket because they're new.
I'm assuming that you've used new head bolts if they are TTY and if not, they are torqued down properly.
That only leaves one logical conclusion, the new remanufactured head has been machined incorrectly or is cracked or both.

I don't think the block is cracked or warped, because it only started using water after the Rock Auto heads were installed.

Remember too that things were OK for a while after you used that copper spray gasket stuff.
Eventually that failed and you're back to the problem of using water because I think the head is not perfectly flat.

Here's more on the head gasket differences.

http://www.therangerstation.com/tech...3_0-build.html

Fel-pro gasket numbers, 9902PT for the Left Hand side and 9903PT for the Right Hand side.

http://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/f...asket+set,5412

EDIT:
Do you still have your old head, it would be interesting to know if it was warped ?
I would also get the new head on the drivers bank checked with a straight edge as well as the block.
Just so you can rule those things out as possible causes.

 

Given the evidence, i agree with Jeff here, though i still think you shouldn't be running without a thermostat

 

madmax when i got the truck from my nephew there was no thermostat installed. for what reason i dont know. but i do know it ran 150-160ish on temp. i put a t stat in and it ran at 185 no problems. this hole mess started because of a rusted plug blew out of the drivers head. looks like im going camping at work since this is my dd and only vehical while i pull the engine to have the block magnafluxed, surfaced and heads checked