2 cars down

[ccasteel]

My 40 and my truck are both out of commission. That leaves me driving my daughter's SAAB and my wife driving my daughter to and fro. The 40 will be it's own thread shortly because I'm tired of dealing with it's nagging problems and want it fixed correctly once and for all.

The truck is my immediate priority. It's an old, high mileage Ford Ranger with a bad head gasket. I have not pulled the heads yet, but I'm planning to do that while you all are out having fun this weekend. 20 years old and 240k miles is worth a gasket and possibly rebuilding the heads. But it's not worth a new motor. My question is how can I tell if it's only the gasket or possibly the head itself, or worse yet also the block?

 

[half k cruiser]

My first thought would be a leakdown test. Just follow the sound of air to your leaks.

 

[tornadoalleycruiser]

Well. What's wrong with the 40. I'm prob one that can help diagnose it

 

[ccasteel]

My first thought would be a leakdown test. Just follow the sound of air to your leaks.

Won't a leakdown test just tell me somthing is bad, but not necessarily if it's the gasket or the head, or both? I took it to my usual mechanic for hard starting, and they told me it is at minimum a bad head gasket. What they couldn't confirm without taking it apart, was if the head was warped. The price they quoted was more than the truck is worth. So if I can put a fraction of that into it, I can avoid having to buy another car right now. It sprang a leak when my oldest daughter had it for a week at K-State. I think, but am not positive she ran it dry. So what I'm trying to figure out, is how to know if the head is bad in addition to the gasket. And if it got really hot, is the block also bad. Maybe it will be obvious when I dig into it this weekend.

Well. What's wrong with the 40. I'm prob one that can help diagnose it

You are definitely my go to for the 40. I'm pretty sure it has to do with the cobbled wiring for the 3FE. It's the same problems I've been babying along for years. It just wasn't bad enough to take it out of service until recently. It dies frequently, and the other night it wouldn't start right back up. Took some wire jiggling in the dark at a stop light with cars stacking up behind me.

It burns through fusible links regularly. And I can hear the rpm's change with the flashing of the turn signals. I want to pull all the wiring out and start from scratch, but that's pretty intimidating for me. As soon as I get my truck going or another reliable vehicle, I'll dive into it.

 

[half k cruiser]

If you have a leak down tester it is worth a shot. It will tell you where air is leaking by. My thought was if the head is warped you may be able to hear it escape out around the block / head interface. Maybe, maybe not, but easy enough to do and I always start with the easiest thing first and progress on from there until the problem is solved.

 

[ccasteel]

Good point. Maybe I could get away with only doing one head instead of both. I assume I could borrow a leak down tester from O'Reilly's.

 

[Robkc]

There is a thread in the 80's section about weird electrical stuff happening with Optima batteries. Fuses blowing, varying idle speed, voltage spikes, etc. Most of the time the Optima bench tested fine. Easy to test by swapping in a different battery like from your truck since it is down.

 

[Willys43]

Charlie, if wiggling wires will fix it, you probably need to clean and tighten all electrical connections, I've used a soda blaster to clean electrical terminals on old tractors and squeezed push on connecters very successfully. Call me about your ranger if you need help
CraigC

 

[cjmoon]

What year and engine ranger? I have a buddy that has a bunch of old bronco ii stuff late 80's v-6 stuff and some 4.0L stuff as well

Sent from my SM-G900V

 

[ccasteel]

It's a '96 with the 3.0.

 

[ccasteel]

So I watched a couple videos on leak down testing. I decided this tool was worth the investment for a cheapie from Harbor Freight. I may regret that. I can't seem to get it screwed into the cylinder. The threads seem short and the spark plug hole seems long and narrow. Am I doing something wrong, or is there a work around someone can tell me.

 

[cjmoon]

It's just using the orings the seal and doesn't have to reach the cumbustion chamber. The rubber hose makes it hard to get the angle right to get the treads started. No tricks that I can think of. I don't think my buddy has any 3l parts but all ask.

Do these have plastic intakes? Could just be a bad intake leak that the cold has made bigger and noticeable to the point of not starting?

Sent from my SM-G900V