OK here is a new one for yall....
I have a '00' Ford Ranger 3.0L Flex-Fuel 97,000mi, 5spd, 3.71 rearend.
Suddenly I noticed one cold morning when I started my truck that it sounded
like it had a miss. It also vibrated what I would consider harshly (compared
to normal). What I dont get is that if you rev the engine real quick a
couple times it will go away. Or if you let the truck sit and run for like
2min it goes away?? I havent pulled the plugs yet to see if they are fouled,
but its only got 97000 and I changed the plugs at 50,000mi, and they looked
great when I did it. I was just stuck in the mode of my old vehicles. I am a
ASE mechanic myself, and we have another one in the family. I asked him what
he thought the problem might be, and he couldnt even remember working on the
internals of a 3.0L engine.
NOW, to add to that issue, at the same time I noticed my coolant seems
to be disappearing into the thin air. I was driving along one night and
noticed my temp gage just bottomed out. So I checked my radiator and it was
almost bone dry. It took a full gallon of antifreeze to refill the radiator,
at the same time I looked at my overflow tank and it was almost full. Now,
correct me if I am wrong, but isnt that tank for expansion during hot engine
run, and its supposed to pull coolant BACK into the radiator when it cools
down? When I pulled the cap off the radiator to refill it, it was under a
strong vacuum. I thought there was a valve in the cap that is supposed to
allow flow back into the radiator when it cools down??
Now here is what I think the problem is, you tell me if I am barking up the
wrong tree. I think the two problems are interlaced. I think that the rough
idle when I start the truck on cold days is due to head gasket shrinkage. I
also think this shrinkage is causeing air to escape into the coolant system.
I think that this is causing my truck to spew coolant out of the expansion
tank.
Let me know what you think. Respond to
pkurtz2@cox.net . I appreciate it if
anyone has had this issue and found a resolution for it.
