94 Explorer 4.0 overheating loss of power and white smoke

[valiant2333]

Hey guys I have a 1994 Explorer and for the past couple of months it's been overheating.. As in while I'm driving it will get past L and when I release the throttle for a couple of seconds and then Explorer kinda hard it cools it back down to N. And it will do this a couple of times then stop and be running normal but there's no water in my radiator. Come to find out it seems there's to much pressure and it's shooting all the water up and out of my resivor tank. And while it's doing that I loose a lot of power and it spits and sputters a lot except when it's cold it runs alright.. I changed the thermostat, radiator hoses, flushed it twice and it's still doing it . I just did the hoses last night and soon as I topped it off it started blowing white smoke like crazy out from the exhaust. So I drove it around and it doesn't blow smoke when I'm driving but when I'm idling it smokes. I don't know what the hell is going on there's no other leaks.. Well I thought until I noticed an excess amount of water dripping from my exhaust. Never did itleak and nnow I'm starting to see it and I got holes in my caddy and it's dripping from there too.. I don't know what else to do or look for. If anyone could help me that would be appreciated cause this is my only vehicle and I can't let it end up in a junk yard.

Thanks

 

[FR-425]

Sounds like a blown head gasket.

 

[natenkiki2004]

If you're spitting out water of the overflow tank, that means volume in the cooling system is being displaced. The only way that happens is by a head gasket failure. Ignition/compression gasses are forced in by a compromised gasket and it displaces the coolant and causes all kinds of running issues.

 

[malohnes]

Yep, head gasket, but it could also be a cracked head. My money would be on a gasket though. Its not a hard job to perform, but takes some time and patience. You'll learn a lot about your truck with this job.

Get good quality metal/rubber gaskets and read up on the various how-to's on here and on TRS. There's lots of wisdom on this subject floating around.