"pkurtz2" <pkurtz2@cox.net> wrote in message
news:ka%yf.23842$0G.17919@dukeread10...
> 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.
Ok here is the skinny guys. I JUST got done doing a head gasket replacement
on my truck. The short of it is, that either the intake gasket, or the the
head gasket was at fault and it has stopped its problem.. Everything works
as its supposed to. I do think that it was the head gasket. The reason I
think this is because there is a spot on one of the gaskets where you can
see a deterioration of the gasket material in between the water jacket
holed, just outside the fire ring on the #5 cylinder, which also happens to
be the cylinder that when I unplug the spark plug, it doesnt change the
sound of the engine on the cold start.
For the person that said that I needed a new radiator cap, at mininum. I had
it checked yesterday, and it is fine. It is rated at 15psi and it is
releasing at 14.7psi, and thats good enough for me.
Thanks for all the replies guys, and I will try to offer insite where ever I
can. I am not going to lie, if I am not there to diagnose the problem, then
there is a good chance that I could be wrong, but it doesnt hurt to put out
my thoughts and have some folks respond to them..
