Hey guys! Let me give some background. A friend was in the market for a small truck, so we found a marketplace deal for a 1994 ranger 3.0L with 85k miles. Long story short the guy sold us the truck with, from what I believe after the fact, a blown head gasket without telling us. On the drive back the blown head gasket slowly replaced the coolant with air and over heated. Unfortunately the coolant sensor in the dash was not working properly, so I never knew the truck was overheating. It got so hot that it started to get fuel detonation, and eventually killed. We let it cool for a while and filled up some gallon jugs with water and would fill it up, drive it for 5 or 10 minutes, then stop and refill to get it home. After diagnosis, one of the cylinders has constant water intrusion. I did a compression test on all the cylinders and they all read 125psi +/- 3, even the one with water. The oil was just starting to get slightly milky. Only started when diagnosing after it got home. It was never milky on the drive back, or before bought. Since I am the one more mechanically inclined than my friend who bought it, I'm going to be doing work on it. I'm not familiar with the 3.0L. I obviously know I need to do a headgasket and related gaskets. Once the heads are pulled, they are getting sent to a machine shop to get tested for cracks and warpage from the heat. I wanted to know y'alls opinions on the motor and its condition, if it can be saved or if too much damage has been done. If it can be saved, I wanted to know any other repairs/maintenance I should do while the heads are off. If I should replace the lifters, or anything else that is easily reachable while doing the repair. I'm going to get a new thermostat and sensor along with distributor and other parts. I just mainly want to know internally. Thanks in advance!

 

My advice would be to only replace the one head gasket you know is bad, and put it back together to see what condition the engine is in, by running it. You don't want to spend a lot of money on it until you know it's condition, and no one can tell you for sure. Of course, it is my philosophy to only fix what is broken. If you see something wrong with the head when it is off, then I would fix that as well. Change the oil of course and fix the temperature gauge.