1997 Ranger 4.0L OHV V6, 154,000+ mi, No A/C

So one morning after I parked and got out of the truck steam came from the hood, not a whole lot but enough to be evident that it overheated some. Later I popped the hood and noticed antifreeze ALL OVER the motor including around and outside of the intake manifold. I couldn't find where it was leaking at so I put some more antifreeze in before coming home to get by. Back home it didn't overheat and most of the antifreeze mess was dried up. Didn't see any leaks under or above the water pump seep holes or near the water pump, all hoses looked good, T-stat was replaced awhile back and no evidence of it leaking. And when it did overheat you could really smell it from inside the cab...

So NOW when I came home today it... overheated. I popped the hood and sure enough the motor was sprayed with antifreeze again. Where else can the antifreeze come from? Is it possible its coming from the intake, or worse yet the heads??? I haven't noticed any loss of power, but tonight I'll pull the sparkplugs to take a look at them.

 

It's been many years ago.. but the exact same thing happened to me. It was the radiator cap!

Is your old?

Rich

 

If it were a gasket issue or cracked head causing that much discharge of coolant, then I would expect some engine misfiring due to lack of compression or seepage into the cylinders.

Did you look over the heater hoses/hot water valve assembly?

 

Replaced the radiator cap, helped some but I believe I found where the two hoses go into the firewall to be leaking which either means bad hoses or heater core? Gonna find out later this weekend...

 

Buy a new radiator cap first.

But mine does that too, I have a very small crack in the radiator where the tranny cooler lines attach to the radiator-it only leaks when it I drive it a long time or wheelin'. When it leaks, it sprays on the engine. It's not too bad, I dont lose too much fluid, but it will probably get worse. I need a new radiator.

 

Okay so even with the new Radiator cap it was still steamin'. This morning after I started it up I decided to pop the hood and check the coolant resevor and sure enough it was sprayin' where the upper hose meets the thermostat housing tube (hose wasn't seated on correctly). This would make sense of how/why all the antifreeze was getting all over and possibly explains the antifreeze smell when driving. T-stat housing tube checked out fine and installed the correct 195* one this time. Upper hose was fine (was replaced a few months ago along with the lower radiator hose). Then the water pump and heater hoses were replaced, upper hose attached to the t-stat housing correctly this time, added 50/50, burped & test drive. No more smell from cab which means my heater core is good and no more steamin'.