mmmmedic50
4x4 manual trans
- Joined
- September 19, 2016
- Messages
- 17
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- NE Indiana
- City, State
- Garrett, Indiana
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 2000 Explorer Sport
I bought a 2000 Explorer Sport with the 4.0 OHC and manual transmission. This Explorer spent its entire life in New Mexico before I got it. I live in north east Indiana and winterized it expecting that's its never been in winter weather. All was going well until we had some extremely cold weather. I drive about 50 highway miles to work and was heading home in the morning, it had gotten down to -17 Fahrenheit actual temp. About a mile into my trip I noticed my temp gauge go higher than normal and then start swinging into the low range and then back up higher than normal. It never got hot. There was no steam from a coolant leak and I always had heat. When I got home I let it cool ( took like 10 minutes with that -17 temp) and checked the radiator. It was empty. I refilled it with aprox 2 gallons and checked for leaks. Found none. Drove it a few miles around town to let it warm up and checked it for leaks again. Found none. I checked the oil and it was WAY over full. I think my original 2 gallons of coolant was in the oil pan. I drained the oil and changed it with new filter. I had someone come over and check it, they thought I had a cracked head or blown head gasket. They found no combustion gases in the radiator. Is it possible with this 4.0 OHC engine to have an intake gasket leak enough to have all the coolant leak into the oil pan? The engine continues to run fine, no knocking and good oil pressure. It has 200K miles and wouldn't mind having the intake gaskets replaced, but I think head gaskets would be too much for the miles. Any thoughts?