Head gasket blown?

[arco777]

94 X. 196k miles. Had new aftermarket heads installed at around 160k. No cooling issues until now. New rad a couple years ago to fix leak, new water pump about 3 months ago as preventative.

Last week I popped the hood and noticed coolant all over the drivers side of the engine bay. Overflow bottle level was high but coolant level low. Topped it up, drove it a little more. Repeat. Appeared my parts store Motorad/Murray rad cap had been unable to contain the pressure despite being like new. Ordered a new OEM Motorcraft cap and installed. Seemed to hold just fine.

Wife drove it while I was away and didn't really keep an eye on the gauges. I popped the hood afterwards and coolant was down about 1.5 gallons. I put in about 3/4 gallon as it was all I had. Started it up, noticed a slight misfire that went away as soon as I left the neighborhood. Drove to the parts store to get more coolant. Saw temperature spike but then it immediately went way back down. Topped up coolant, and it ran cool for the rest of the drive.

Fired it up this morning and still have cold start misfire. Put it on the code reader which brought up nothing in KOEO, KOER and cylinder balance (90) tests. During testing it puffed out constant white smoke/vapor from the exhaust and some liquid on the ground.

I'm about to pull and check the plugs. Any tips on telling for sure if the head gasket is going bad?

 

[FR-425]

For sure? Absolutely sure? No guessing? No speculation? End of thread type, for sure.??

http://www.amazon.com/UVIEW-560000-Combustion-Leak-Tester/dp/B000NPDL76

 

[arco777]

Hi FR-425! I don't have one of those, but may have to see if the parts store has one handy.

I pulled all the plugs. 5 are Motorcraft Platinum AGSF42FM, one is an Autolite Platinum.
Cylinders 2, 3, 4, and 6 were all good. Cylinder 1 was kind of cruddy - pic attached. Cylinder 5 was misaligned, appears to be a defect as the plug is still functional. Weird. I cleaned the dirty #1 plug up and after restart the motor didn't seem to be misfiring any more.

I attached a couple pictures showing the smoke I'm blowing with about 25% throttle, no load.

 

[arco777]

Also, if my head gasket is toast I'm not averse to replacing the gaskets myself. However do you think there's a chance of my heads being damaged, considering they're not original castings? I'd really rather not have to put another set of heads on, but if I do I guess I'd be going with upgraded bolts and maybe Morana-sourced heads.

Pricewise this has got me thinking about alternatives, like a SOHC swap from an 05+ Mustang. I'm kind of attached to my OHV, but a SOHC might be fun if the swap isn't too tough. I have a hoist in my garage specifically for ability to do a motor swap, and the Explorer is just a spare vehicle anyways.

 

[Number4]

For sure? Absolutely sure? No guessing? No speculation? End of thread type, for sure.??

http://www.amazon.com/UVIEW-560000-Combustion-Leak-Tester/dp/B000NPDL76

I believe AutoZone rents these. Pay for fluid. Though the white smoke out the pipe is rather telling.

 

[arco777]

I believe AutoZone rents these. Pay for fluid. Though the white smoke out the pipe is rather telling.

I just rented one from AutoZone actually. It was almost out of fluid. I started with the engine cold but otherwise followed the instructions. Pulled air through the fluid and nothing bad showed. Then as the truck started to warm up a little, the coolant level rose to the point that it wanted to barf out the rad cap and contaminated the test fluid.

I only have enough in the bottle to run one more test. I'm going to drain some coolant and try again. Could I be overfilled on coolant?

 

[natenkiki2004]

Don't put 100% faith in the chemical tester. There's case studies done by automotive professionals that prove a head gasket is blown yet those chemical tests never hint at it. For example, one was an emissions tester stuffed into the coolant reservoir and it registered hydrocarbons. The chemical tester, even used longer than recommended by instructions, didn't register even the slightest change.

 

[arco777]

Well, I drained about a gallon of coolant. Tried the test again. Pumped air out of the radiator neck (through the test fluid) to the point that I put a vacuum on the radiator. Zero change in fluid color (which is supposed to indicate combustion gases). Continued for a while. Checked the temp gauge and noticed it was at the L in NORMAL, which is unusual for this truck. Checked the coolant level in the rad and all I could see was steam. Added about a gallon of coolant. Temp gauge dropped instantly. Think my stat may be snapping open, possibly late. Continued pumping air through the test fluid with no change. Temp gauge stayed at the N. Eventually got tired of nothing happening so shut it off. Natenkiki2004, you might have a point.

Checked my dipstick - my oil level is wayyyy up. Like twice what it should be. I know it was filled perfectly only a week ago. It hasn't changed color, but looks lighter than it used to be. Guess that is where my coolant is going. Still getting the white smoke and drips from the exhaust.

Possibility of an intake manifold leak, rather than the head gasket?

 

[Wolfie_85]

Possibly intake gasket, but with first gen Explorers, head gaskets (or heads) aren't an uncommon issue. Mine went without the white smoke, but the temp spiked one day and that was my tip. Checked the oil and it was way full (and milky).

My mechanic friend's words when I asked him the likelyhood of it being an intake gasket: "It might be, but with the Explorers, almost always the head gasket, and you'll be real lucky not to need new heads". He ended up being right, but my heads were ok.

If your engine pinged more than the allowance Ford said was normal, that can cause a head gasket to go, too.

 

[arco777]

Thanks! I'm hoping the heads can be saved, as they only had 37k miles on them and maybe I caught it early enough. I think for now I'm going to plan on changing gaskets and getting the heads checked if I can find a reputable shop, then I'll re-install them.

 

[arco777]

Ordered the following...
FEL-PRO 544SD Cylinder Head Gasket / Head Gasket Set
FEL-PRO 545SD Cylinder Head Gasket / Head Gasket Set
FEL-PRO MS98005T Intake Manifold Gasket
FEL-PRO OS34309R Oil Pan Gasket
VICTOR REINZ GS33221 Cylinder Head Bolt
WESTAR EM2641 Motor Mount
WESTAR EM2643 Motor Mount

Will update this thread at some point, once I get the work done.

 

[malohnes]

Arco77, I'd bet gasket is toast and head is fine. I doubt that head was overheated.

 

[jd4242]

Thats a head gasket ..intake leaks normally only leak water into the oil..head gasket leaks compression into the radiator making it over flow,then when shut off the water pressure leaks back into the oil..

 

[arco777]

Thanks all!

UPDATE: Heads were both warped from overheating, head gasket failure on one. It appears a faulty head gasket, stressed by time and a defective radiator cap, failed. Replacement of head gaskets turned into a full engine rebuild (link in signature below).