Hi all, I'm new to the group. I've had a bad couple of months with my 2011 PK Ranger.

Sorry for the long story!

Started with the A/C stopped cooling in April. Fan worked, but no cooling. This coincided with a what I thought was a flat battery at the time.

Replaced battery and the A/C worked again. Few days later I was hwy driving and it overheated and cracked the radiator.

Dropped it to the mechanics. They replaced the radiator and thermostat, flushed everything. This lasted about 2 weeks before it started heating again (but never overheated).

At this point, the brand new battery started to be sluggish on first start of the day. It never didn't start, but it wound a few times before it fired.

I took it back to the same mechanics and they suspected an air lock, pressurised it out.

This lasted a few weeks.

Went to a radiator and cooling specialist, who said the viscous fan clutch was free spinning after stop, so replaced this. Also the hoses and the EGR cooler were replaced. They also replaced the new thermostat S it wasn't opening until about 95 deg C.

This worked perfectly for a few months, but then one afternoon a bit of city driving, it warmed up (not overheating). Dropped back into the cooling specialist, they overfilled the radiator with a funnel and it was bubbling a little. Said suspect HG leak, but no solution offered.

Went to a new mechanic who kept it for 3 days and did all the head gasket tests. They couldn't get it to fault. Turns out the cooling specialised dumped a bottle of chemi in there and didn't tell me, which masked the problem.

Right now, I haven't had it overheat since but the battery seems like its flat on first start. Really sluggish, but it will eventually turn over.

Has anyone experienced anything similar? i can find heaps of info on warped heads online, but its not riding roughly and there's nothing online about the power issues.

Only got 130k on the clock.

Thanks heaps!
Nate.

 

Welcome to the North American Ranger forum

Our Rangers are different than yours, you have a T6 Ranger, we could never get those here

Try this forum: https://www.fordforums.com.au/forumdisplay.php?f=371

Also include the engine size/type

Yes, it does read like a blown head gasket and if the original mechanic add a bottle of "block sealer" then he may have known about it

The slow starting can also indicate that, if coolant is leaking into the cylinders when engine is off that will cause slow cranking and no start until its cleared out of the engine so the fuel can ignite

You WILL see white exhaust smoke when/if this is happening just after startup

On another note
We are probably going down to Brisbane next year, if there is a vaccine, lol
Any "must see" or "avoid at all cost" things you would know about, recommend
We will be there for 3 weeks