Coolant resevoir keeps drying up!
 

I noticed that my coolant reservoir started drying up pretty quickly lately. I'm assuming there is a leak. Is it probably just a hose, or could I have a cracked radiator or something?
What type of coolant should I be using? its a 98' 4.0 ranger. I have been puting the green peak 50/50 antifreeze/coolant in it.

Either your leaking it which should be pretty obvious or your burning it... Which should be pretty obvious. If it's leaking enough to empty the tank you will probably smell it and if it's burning from a failed head gasket or something the exhaust should be smoking bluish white

Check your Block HEater Plug

or your waterpump and timing chain cover...thats the area my truck leaks...but i look at it this way....about half a gallon every month or two isnt bad cuz im constaintly flushing my system! haha

Could you elaborate more... I never even thought of this stuff. Mine seems to be burning through more than that.

Now my truck is noticeably leaking more fluids onto the ground under the motor and has a cylinder 4 misfire, as i posted in another related thread. Any ideas that i can work off of would be very helpful. Thanks

Ended up having the mechanic check it out and it was just the timing chain cover that was leaking. Had to get a new seal and be ground down a bit I guess. The cylinder misfire was unrelated and just a fouled plug. So ended up getting new plugs/wires, radiator cap, timing chain cover seal, and a new water pump all done.

With the 4.0 OHV engine, a misfire on #4 is the classic symptom of a coolant leak into the #4 port from the gasket between the intake manifold and the cylinder head. I predict that the #4 misfire will return.

Yeah, I read that on some other posts when this problem first came up. So I was calling around to see how much a head gasket or intake manifold gasket would cost, and I even told my mechanic thats what I thought the problem was. So he checked for that I assume....
How would you check for that? I was told you would pressurize the engine.... I assume that shows you where its leaking?
I think its been like a month now since he worked on it, and its running fine with no codes still, so I hope it was just a coincidence that the #4 cylinder plug was fouled.
Would it lose a lot of coolant from the reservoir if it was leaking into the cylinder? And shouldn't it be misfiring again by now if that was the case?

Thanks

The leak into the port can be small or large and chances are it would get worse over time. The #4 plug fouling doesn't always come back right away but it will if the coolant leak is large enough. The cooling system can be pressurized to check for any leakdown but pinpointing an internal leak like that isn't as easy as finding an external one. If coolant is seeping into the port, a plug reading on #4 should look quite a bit different compared to an adjacent cylinder.

Mine drys up to pretty quickly. Have to fil once every other week. But nothings leaking and there's no smoke out the exhaust. Its just magically dissapears, I'm starting to believe ha. I got the 4.0 as well

Im floating the same boat! I have to fill it up every week whether I drive it or not... no bad engine noises (Anything badly unusual minus the standard noisy 4.0) but it ssuper annoying, Im about to go jsut buy some more tubing and replace everything I can find and make sure it isnt an old cracked line that swells under heat.

Any one figure out something else to check?

No smoke, no leaks , plugs look all the same, none of the "steam cleaned".

Radiator cap?

Your issue seems to be either you're burning the coolant slowly (head gasket) or even perhaps a small thermostat housing crack that opens up when you drive

I seem to have joined the "Fouled #4 plug Club" This is after an oil analysis revealed coolant in the oil. I had the upper and lower intake gaskets changed and after the next 4000 mile oil change the analysis was way improved. running another 4000 miles to have it rechecked but......899 miles away from that goal I get an engine miss and the "Mis-fire #4 code". Not a happy camper to say the least.

Now, through my research I have found strong indications that either head cracks between #'s 3 & 4 are common as well as the intake manifold gaskets. CRAP!

My questions to the informed guru's is, I have 118K on the clock...should this be a cracked head what is the best approach? New +valve grind? Used, magnafluxed, resurfaced and grind the valves? At this mileage will the other head need to have the valves re-done also?

Many questions, many decisions. HAPPY NEW YEAR to me. :pat:

Rog

been their done that mine happend around 95k.. i installed new valve seals new head gaskets upper intake and lower and valve cover gaskets and had the head checked for crackes whitch it had and was repaired at the machine shop the truck now has 135k and shes still runing strong with no signs of the head problem happening again.

Thanks for the reply Brandon.
Where were the cracks located in the head and would they have caused coolant to leak into the oil? I quess we have come a long way as I didn't know that head cracks could be repaired.

Rog[/I]

Rotting Intake !
 

Hi , I've had this problem before .The cooling water to intake sprung a small leak to the inside of the intake .The cooling water was being sucked thru to the pistons . I replaced the intake to stop the coolant loss . My thoughts Bud