Replaced thermostat, intake manifold, now the truck runs like crap. New oil, spark plugs, new pvc valve, new temp sensor. Before I messed with anything the heat never worked but the truck never overheated. I flushed the radiator and the heat started working. Now with the new install, the heat rarely ever works. The truck smokes a lot of white smoke at random times and overheats within minutes. When I changed the oil it was really dirty but didn't have any water. I think my timing is off as well.

What could be the problem? What test can I preform?

 

No problems before the intake manifold change other than dying at the first intersection each morning until warmed up. I started to do a tune up to fix the stalling problem and figured it would be a good time to change the thermostat and temp sensor since my temp gauge never worked. The thermostat bolts broke which is why i ended up replacing the intake manifold. What could be causing the smoking and overheating. I hope it is not the head gasket. If it is, why would it fail at this point? It does not seem like the truck has lost any power.

 

if it's overheating and smoking chances are your head gaskets are shot, why it would fail now, I'm not sure it would seem it would have done it before now but you said the oil was really dirty and it didn't have water..it has to be going somewhere so I think it's your head gaskets

 

It would help if you gave us more information on what Year you truck is. What type of engine it has etc. With more details you will be further more helped.

 

Are you implying that he may not be talking about a 1959 International?

 

Sorry. It is a 1992 ranger 3.0

 

I'd say head gaskets. They had a prob with these that yr on the tauruses but not as bad as the 3.8's of the same yr

 

Can driving with the timing off be the cause of the blown head gasket?

 

In my experience, it doesn't cause a prob, usually blown head gaskets are caused from excessive overheating of the engine, like running it with really low water causing it to overheat, stuck thermostat or running an insufficient amount of coolant/water mix in colder months and the water freezing sometimes blowing out freeze plugs or damaging your heater core which will also cause it to overheat in some instances

 

White smoke is water in the combustion or ex manifold. Intermittant means a gasget (could be any gasget between coolant and fuel path) leaks sometimes(temperature related) Go back to what u did and do it over, inspect everything, something changed so don't start operating different places. -Hope this helps-

 

What I think happened is the new thermostat was faulty and on the first drive the truck overheated. The gauge was a little off and looked like it was in the high range of normal when really it was boiling over. Had I known it was overheated the head gasket would not have blown. Is the head gasket repair much more work than the lower intake manifold repair. It took around 16 hours for the intake manifold replacement but i did clean up everything really well, so maybe it won't take so long this time. What is the best way to determine whether it is something just not right with my intake manifold and above like the previous poster said, or it is indeed a head gasket?

 

Do a compression test on each cylinder

 

How much does the tester cost to test it myself, or will a shop do this for free usually?

 

You can get one at most auto stores, they just screw into the spark plug hole.

 

Ok, I pulled the thermostat and now it seems to take longer to heat up but that may because I didn't drive it. There is a lot of pressure on the upper radiator hose even for shortly after the engine is off. There is lots of water coming out of the exhaust and I did find water on the dipstick. So i guess it is pretty apparent that the head gasket is blown. Am i right?

Also, before replacing the head gasket, I guess I should figure out what caused the problem in the first place. Anyone know how to fully flush the cooling system to remove any pockets of air and what not? It seems like something is backed up even with the thermostat out.

 

Ok so i disconnected the heater core hose while I filled the rad as suggested by a neighbor. I ran the engine with the hose off to make sure there was a flow and quickly turned the truck off and reconnected the hose. Now there is no pressure on the upper rad hose and the heat worked for a few minutes until I revved it up once. The truck still has water coming out of the exhaust but there are no signs of overheating. I let it idle for at least ten minutes and it never got to operating temp and upper rad hose was not very warm; I guess from no thermostat being in there. What is with the funky heater working only sometimes?

Also, Cowboy Bob do you still think it could be something I done wrong and not the head gasket? Now that I think of it, one of the bolts in the back closest to the firewall that hold the lower intake manifold down was torqued down to tight and I wasn't able to tighten it. Do you think this is my problem?

Thanks everyone for the input!

 

OK stop running the truck ur head gaskets r TOAST... take the engine down to the BLOCK and send the heads out to make sure there not cracked OR warped... ur lookin for a NORMAL shop to do it anywhere from 1200-2500 depending on what has be broken and IF ur heads r toast... and also best and cheapest bet what i would do is 5.0 swap it :) i have the same truck same POS engine :) soo im doing all the same problems... i work at a shop and have rebuilt 2 of these in rangers ALREADY

 

also OVER torquing bolts likes to bend things that get warm....

 

I don't have the money to take it to a shop so I am going to have to tackle this one myself. I have got nothing but time. So I am hoping all it will cost is $16 for the head gasket since the other gaskets are new.

Aside from the cooling system issue, could the striped lower intake mani bolt be causing the problem?

 

I got the drv side head off and it was full of water. Also in the valve cover there was caked up foam that looks somewhat like greatstuff. Is that normal for head gasket failure? What other things should I keep an eye out for? I am going to remove the other side tomorrow.

 

water in the combustion chamber indicates head gasket failure..the foam you are seeing is what happens when oil gets mixed with water..a clear sign of a gasket going south when you tear the other head off, make sure you take them to a shop and have them checked for warpage or cracks this shouldn't cost you very much but it will let you know what to do further and if you need to have the heads shaved a few thousandths. if it didn't get super hot, chances are your heads are fine from warpage but still have them checked for cracks, it would totally suck to have new gaskets and put it all back together only to find out a cracked head is the cause. You may luck out and only have one bad gasket, but I would check both anyway and replace them in pairs if you can

 

Replaced both head gaskets and it seems to be doing fine now. Once I get the base timing right everything should be good. I seem to be missing the cover that has the timing marks, but oh well. Thanks for everyone's help.