Blown Head Gaskets and Other Stuff

[spitfire199]

Hi, Sorry for the long post, long time lurker ever since I had my ranger and now my 2007 Mountaineer. Any comments are appreciated.

I was wondering if any of you would look over the following and give me your thoughts. Understand I realize I am stupid and should have stopped driving my exploder sooner in the week ha, but i was going to deal with it "tomorrow".

Things I notice the day before: Small coolant leak from the right side of the radiator, could see it lightly smoking when I parked. Noticed that the heat would not work and then suddenly would get very hot. Temp gauge would spike to top and then fall back down. The traction light would flash, even tho the system should not be activating.

;(- Had a bit of an emergency and needed to go to the town a few mins over, white smoke everywhere, stopped driving, pretty sure it was the head gasket, towed to ford, confirmed head gasket (block test) and leaking radiator. I also noticed the thermostat housing had a huge hole in it, prob where the coolant spewed out. Ford wanted almost 5000 (small town bullshit), explorer has never had great track record/not worth that, towed home. Didn't find any obvious signs of coolant in oil from dipstick, light residue coolant. Current OBD codes: B2290, P0118, P1000,U2023

Been looking at new cars, but I am just graduating college and would rather not, and I also really love my car lol so was thinking about taking a crack at replacing the head gaskets radiator, thermostat housing/sensor, and check heads. But I was wondering if there is anything else I am overlooking? Also any comments about (1) the heater not working / then super hot and the temp gauge rising, some searching makes it sound like it would be the opposite relationship and (2) the traction light flashing and the U2023 code, separate problem? random? product of overheating?

 

[Rcflyer330]

The heater problem is most likely caused by the coolant problems you are having. low coolant will do weird things and so will overheating situations.

Next what engine do you have? that will help so other people that may have done head gaskets on that motor can chime in.

Here is a link for things to check for the u2023 code it's is for a 2005 escape but should be similar things to check
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100211144400AAnGfR4

The b2290 could be a battery going bad. or the connector under the passenger seat or the sensor itself. I would say it is the battery unless the battery is under 5 years old. most auto part stores can check it.

P0118 has to do with the coolant temp sensor it could be the sensor going bad but I am not shure. but I don't think the sensor is that expencive and since you have to do a thermostat housing I would change it too along with the thermostat.

 

[spitfire199]

4.0 V6 SOHC, got the haynes manual and doesnt look too bad. Have to do it out in the snow tho ;(

Thanks for the U2023 stuff never found that, will prob work on that after the heads. The battery/B2290 never dawned on me and I bet you are right. It just died this week sitting out in the snow and I half charged it last night.

 

[Explorer_PL]

Head gasket is one thing on that motor, doing the timing after is whole other story.
Which side ? One side has the timing cassette behind the engine.

 

[spitfire199]

Unsure, figured I would just do both while i'm in there. I did get the OTC timing tool set for the engine, can the rear cassette be done with the engine in place?

 

[Tech By Trade]

07, I do believe you can pull the head on the passenger side without disturbing the rear cassette, but you do need to pull the upper gear off the cam and the bolt that holds the top of the cassette. I think the hole is big enough to fit around the gear. Just dont drop anything or you will be pulling that engine to get the bottom gear out. Drivers side should be the same. You also need to replace all the head bolts as they are torque to yield. So are the bolts on the camshaft gear. If the cassettes are pooched too your probably ahead of the game just to get an engine from a wrecker and drop it in. Rear cassette cant be done in the engine.

 

[08EddieCA]

Keep in mind you may need to eventually replace the transmission. Cost can run $1,700 to $3,500. Water pump and fan clutch should be replaced at the same time.

 

[Joey Threesticks]

Agreed with above. If you need to do any work on that engine that involves those rear cassettes, it may be time to replace the entire engine. They're pretty common in salvage yards, and
some yards will even give you a small warranty on a new engine (at least here they do).

Your heat probably stopped working due to inadequate coolant flow through the heater core due to a low level (leak) and then spiked as overheated fluid made its way through the heating system.

Good luck to you replacing the head gaskets, if you think you can get it done yourself you'll save a bundle and learn quite a bit too. Be thorough, my advice.

Best of luck!