Fors Ranger Head Gasket

[hamdogg]

I recently had some overheating problems with my ford ranger 05 thunder, it started to overheat so i immediatly sent it to the garage and after spending alot of time taking the water pump to bits and realised it was fine he found that it was the thermostat that was broken so a new one on and he said was all fine!!! a week down the line the temp gauge started flutuating up and down but not stopping at hot, i checked the water it needed some but not alot and this didnt change anything the next morn on way to work the temp went straight to hot pritty soon and stopped there so again straight to garage and now he thinks head gasket. But no visible water in the oil and the engine sounds fine when running i cant help think its something else or am i just hoping for too much??

[Tyz05]

Viscous fan unit? How much resistance on the fan if you spin it by hand?

[hamdogg]

not sure as its parked up at the garage over the easter weekend, but i think there is quite a bit of resistance but cant quote on it, whats the viscous fan unit?

[MikeTM150]

sorry to be a downer on this, but my 04 plate ranger overheated (cuz i didn't check the rad was clear before a long tow ) and it hit the red about 30mins down motorway and i stopped soon as i noticed. It cracked the head and warped the block. Never got it to seal again not matter what we tried so i stuck in the local auctions.

 

At the time and looking back, i did wonder if there was something else going on like a water/oil heat exchanger in the engine that was causing the problem. Never got to the bottom of it, i'm afraid so can't help but i hope for your sake it isn't as bad as mine was!!

 

Viscous coupling is bit the bit that joins ur rad fan to the drive from the engine, it controls how hard the fan draws air through the rad according to the temp of the engine!

[Tyz05]

The viscous unit is the bit between the belt pulley and the fan blade unit. Sometimes they can play up intermittently, best time to check it is when it's over heating but checking when cold should give a good indication.You should not be able to spin the fan blades freely.

[Tyz05]

Also is the engine actually over heating? Might sound stupid but could be faulty temp sensor. ?

[hamdogg]

Also is the engine actually over heating? Might sound stupid but could be faulty temp sensor. ?

 

it wasnt before so thats what we thought but it overheated the last time!! im just hoping for no cracks!!

[Tyz05]

Check out the viscous unit first, I've had a few fail on various vehicles recently, one was a 56 plate ranger.if that don't turn out to be the prob and you do end up taking the head off make sure you get it sent off for crack testing if you can't see any obvious problems, had similar issues with a 6 cyl petrol landcruiser, stripped it all down couldn't see no visible defects with gasket or head, sent it away and found hairline crack.Keep us posted with what you find.

[Rich2484]

Don't think a hairline crack would effect the temp that much. You would get water diss appearing from rad. It would have to go somewhere so it would either be in the oil or burning in a cylinder.

 

I really would go with fan unit fault or blockage in cooling system. Can you fill rad and it drains through engine? Remove the hoses and put a hosepipe (sorry a jug as your not allowed to use hosepipes now) in engine side of coolant system and make sure it comes out bottom. Do same to rad.

 

Is the rad fins blocked up with dust and dirt. Is air actually going through rad fins? Could it be as simple as blowing rad out?

[Tyz05]

Don't think a hairline crack would effect the temp that much. You would get water diss appearing from rad. It would have to go somewhere so it would either be in the oil or burning in a cylinder.

 

Yeah your right there, should have added the Toyota was over heating due to water loss,so not really relevant to the OPs problem. Defo worth checking the rad though,good call.

Edited April 7, 2012 by Tyz05