mrbigsexy
Member
- Joined
- May 9, 2013
- Messages
- 12
- Reaction score
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- City, State
- DC Metropolitan Area
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 2002 Ford Explorer
Hello all,
We got ahold of an '02 Explorer for $750 that initially would not start and noticed it had sugar in the gas tank (sugar in the fill tube, I presumed there was sugar in the tank as well at that point).
Dropped the tank, cleaned the sugar, replaced fuel pump & filter, put in 4 gallons and tried to crank. No start . . . .
Replaced the ignition coil, spark plugs, and it started (yay!), but soon put out billowing white clouds of smoke, and the coolant was bubbling out through the top of the reservoir (oh noes!) . . . .
A mechanically inclined friend told me that it was a head gasket so I decided to do my first ever head gasket job with little assistance, but taking alot of time and asking alot of questions.
The block was cleaned (as best I could with a scraper), but it was still looking dirty to me anyway. The heads were warped and were milled beyond spec, so shims were added to restore height and sprayed on the block side with liquid copper gasket. A Fel Pro MLS Permatorque gasket was used, plus new TTY cylinder head bolts, and torqued down to proper '02 Explorer Ford specs listed in the Haynes repair manual. I could not find any adequate information about using RTV anywhere, so I left it out. Engine was reassembled for the most part (with the exception of a couple vacuum hoses I cannot find where they go, and the little connector on top of the radiator has no place to connect to).
As a side note, I had alot of fun little mishaps that hindered every single possible effort to complete this project in a timely fashion (I was supposed to drive to Kansas this summer in that truck!) since February. Here is the list of mishaps: Rear timing cassette broke during head removal (had to disconnect engine from tranny and slide it forward with alot of effort to access torx screw), Front timing chain misaligned from jackshaft sprocket (had to remove front timing cover and everything that was almost back on the truck), broke several sockets including T50 socket (extending the project by a couple days every time), Had to retime the engine without the use of timing tools (it is harder than it looks, this alone took some time).
The engine was restarted a few times, and was smoking for a while and then stopped smoking. Now when the engine starts, no smoke comes out, but once it warms up a little, liquid starts shooting out of the lower passenger side of the engine somewhere near the oil filter!! I wish I could say oil or antifreeze, I think it might be both! What could I have done wrong on one side of the engine, but not on the other? Any insight would be much appreciated, I am so tired of looking at this truck just sitting in the garage.
Bonus Question: My throttle cable is like an inch too short, the engine starts at 2K RPMs. All I did was oil the throttle and cable when it was apart. Lifting the gas pedal with my foot seems to do the trick, but it's not driveable like that, any ideas?
I will post some pics soon, I have to figure out how to log back into my Photobucket account, it's been giving me problems.
We got ahold of an '02 Explorer for $750 that initially would not start and noticed it had sugar in the gas tank (sugar in the fill tube, I presumed there was sugar in the tank as well at that point).
Dropped the tank, cleaned the sugar, replaced fuel pump & filter, put in 4 gallons and tried to crank. No start . . . .
Replaced the ignition coil, spark plugs, and it started (yay!), but soon put out billowing white clouds of smoke, and the coolant was bubbling out through the top of the reservoir (oh noes!) . . . .
A mechanically inclined friend told me that it was a head gasket so I decided to do my first ever head gasket job with little assistance, but taking alot of time and asking alot of questions.
The block was cleaned (as best I could with a scraper), but it was still looking dirty to me anyway. The heads were warped and were milled beyond spec, so shims were added to restore height and sprayed on the block side with liquid copper gasket. A Fel Pro MLS Permatorque gasket was used, plus new TTY cylinder head bolts, and torqued down to proper '02 Explorer Ford specs listed in the Haynes repair manual. I could not find any adequate information about using RTV anywhere, so I left it out. Engine was reassembled for the most part (with the exception of a couple vacuum hoses I cannot find where they go, and the little connector on top of the radiator has no place to connect to).
As a side note, I had alot of fun little mishaps that hindered every single possible effort to complete this project in a timely fashion (I was supposed to drive to Kansas this summer in that truck!) since February. Here is the list of mishaps: Rear timing cassette broke during head removal (had to disconnect engine from tranny and slide it forward with alot of effort to access torx screw), Front timing chain misaligned from jackshaft sprocket (had to remove front timing cover and everything that was almost back on the truck), broke several sockets including T50 socket (extending the project by a couple days every time), Had to retime the engine without the use of timing tools (it is harder than it looks, this alone took some time).
The engine was restarted a few times, and was smoking for a while and then stopped smoking. Now when the engine starts, no smoke comes out, but once it warms up a little, liquid starts shooting out of the lower passenger side of the engine somewhere near the oil filter!! I wish I could say oil or antifreeze, I think it might be both! What could I have done wrong on one side of the engine, but not on the other? Any insight would be much appreciated, I am so tired of looking at this truck just sitting in the garage.
Bonus Question: My throttle cable is like an inch too short, the engine starts at 2K RPMs. All I did was oil the throttle and cable when it was apart. Lifting the gas pedal with my foot seems to do the trick, but it's not driveable like that, any ideas?
I will post some pics soon, I have to figure out how to log back into my Photobucket account, it's been giving me problems.
