Problems after replacing headgasket

[Getagrip]

My friend from work spent the last 2 days changing my head gasket on my 1998 Ford Explorer. Engine type is 6 cylinder, 4.0 EFI with an "X" in the VIN number.

After getting everything back together, we noticed that there was an "open" small hose connection on the drivers side of the engine, but we could not figure out where this hose connects to. I don't have a picture because the vehicle is not with me at the moment, but the part of the hose that is connected to the vehicle starts at the evaporator cannister below the battery. There is a small white screw that goes into the hose but isn't fastened to anything at the moment, but looks like it should be. The hose stretches almost to the radiator, so I'm guessing its about a foot long or so, and can also stretch in the other direction. Does anyone know where this hose might attach to?

We decided to start the engine even though the hose wasn't connected. The engine starts very strong, but wants to stall when idling. The best way to describe the way the engine sounds is that its similar to the sound your vehicle makes if you drive it with one of the spark plug wires loose. It "almost" sounds good, but something is not quite right.

We were able to start the engine 3 times without any problems, but didn't risk driving it anywhere, other than backing it out of the garage, which made the vehicle want to stall again. The stall would temorarily go away when giving it gas, but then the vehicle would want to stall again when idling. My friend is confident he put the spark plugs back in the right firing order, double checked all of the spark plug connections, and thinks it has something to do with the "vaccuum" due to the hose not being connected.

If anyone has any ideas about where the hose should be connected and what the problem with the idling is, please respond to this thread! I'm prepared for the worse, but hoping this is something minor. Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[mr cribb]

Have you checked the hoses on the canister to see if you missed one? This sounds similar when I had a hose on my canister break... plug vacuum runs great, open vacuum runs like crap.

Bottom line is check to see if there is a break in a hose somewhere this would match, or a place where there isn't a hose attached.

I know this is a very vague answer, but there isn't much else to say, without a better description or picture.

 

[Runnin'OnEmpty]

Ah ha; that hose connects to the throttle body on the
underside and the nipple is hidden by the A/C
compressor. You have to stretch around to eyeball it.

Re-connect the hose and that should solve your
stalling problem, since there's a vacuum leak
without it.

You might want to replace the hose, since it deteriorates
very quickly. It's the one that has a black powdery
residue on it that turns your hands black.

 

[jd4242]

ah ha; that hose connects to the throttle body on the
underside and the nipple is hidden by the a/c
compressor. You have to stretch around to eyeball it.

Re-connect the hose and that should solve your
stalling problem, since there's a vacuum leak
without it.

You might want to replace the hose, since it deteriorates
very quickly. It's the one that has a black powdery
residue on it that turns your hands black.

x2

 

[Getagrip]

Thanks for the responses. My friend solved the vacuum leak, and drove the Explorer around for a bit. There was a severe loss of power and the engine started to overheat. Driving a bit further, the Explorer misfired and acted as if the head gasket was going out. Anyone have any ideas?

Please note that before this repair, the Explorer worked fine. I put in some stop leak pellets in around 2,000 miles ago, with no issues whatsoever. Other than the small leak on the engine block, there were no symptoms whatsover of a head gasket problem, other than what seemed to be a slight loss of power (e.g. being a little slow to accelerate going up hills on the highway, etc). Oil was clean. This repair was simply preventive maintenance, but seems to have caused problems.

I'm going to towed to a mechanic after work tonight, but any ideas about what might be going on would be appreciated.

 

[jd4242]

Thanks for the responses. My friend solved the vacuum leak, and drove the Explorer around for a bit. There was a severe loss of power and the engine started to overheat. Driving a bit further, the Explorer misfired and acted as if the head gasket was going out. Anyone have any ideas?

Please note that before this repair, the Explorer worked fine. I put in some stop leak pellets in around 2,000 miles ago, with no issues whatsoever. Other than the small leak on the engine block, there were no symptoms whatsover of a head gasket problem, other than what seemed to be a slight loss of power (e.g. being a little slow to accelerate going up hills on the highway, etc). Oil was clean. This repair was simply preventive maintenance, but seems to have caused problems.

I'm going to towed to a mechanic after work tonight, but any ideas about what might be going on would be appreciated.

Did you only replace the gaskets and use the stock heads again? If so you probably have a cracked head not bad gasket.

 

[mr cribb]

Thanks for the responses. My friend solved the vacuum leak, and drove the Explorer around for a bit. There was a severe loss of power and the engine started to overheat. Driving a bit further, the Explorer misfired and acted as if the head gasket was going out. Anyone have any ideas?

Please note that before this repair, the Explorer worked fine. I put in some stop leak pellets in around 2,000 miles ago, with no issues whatsoever. Other than the small leak on the engine block, there were no symptoms whatsover of a head gasket problem, other than what seemed to be a slight loss of power (e.g. being a little slow to accelerate going up hills on the highway, etc). Oil was clean. This repair was simply preventive maintenance, but seems to have caused problems.

I'm going to towed to a mechanic after work tonight, but any ideas about what might be going on would be appreciated.

Sounds like a cracked head.

Did you have the heads checked for cracks? The factory heads are known for cracking due to weak castings.

How many miles on the motor?

If more than 200k you may want to look into rebuilding the motor.

I had the same issues and put new heads on just to figure out my bottom end was weak and blew the rings.

 

[Getagrip]

We replaced the head gaskets and some other gaskets on the vehicle, plus put in new spark plugs. We didn't replace anything else, so yes, we would have used the stock heads again.

The Explorer only has about 79,000 miles on it. When my friend looked at everything after he got it apart, he said everything looked fine for the most part. Even mentioned something about the cylinders having "etching" or something like that (sorry, can't remember what the exact term was - it was a good thing though).

So, assuming the engine is totally messed up now, what is a reasonable cost for a rebuild?

 

[jd4242]

We replaced the head gaskets and some other gaskets on the vehicle, plus put in new spark plugs. We didn't replace anything else, so yes, we would have used the stock heads again.

The Explorer only has about 79,000 miles on it. When my friend looked at everything after he got it apart, he said everything looked fine for the most part. Even mentioned something about the cylinders having "etching" or something like that (sorry, can't remember what the exact term was - it was a good thing though).

So, assuming the engine is totally messed up now, what is a reasonable cost for a rebuild?

You wouldn't be able to see the cracks.98tm heads are less prone to crack but have before.the heads would have to go to a machine shop to be tested. did you use new head bolts also?

 

[Getagrip]

Yes, we used new bolts.

 

[mr cribb]

We replaced the head gaskets and some other gaskets on the vehicle, plus put in new spark plugs. We didn't replace anything else, so yes, we would have used the stock heads again.

The Explorer only has about 79,000 miles on it. When my friend looked at everything after he got it apart, he said everything looked fine for the most part. Even mentioned something about the cylinders having "etching" or something like that (sorry, can't remember what the exact term was - it was a good thing though).

So, assuming the engine is totally messed up now, what is a reasonable cost for a rebuild?

So with less than 80k miles, you have no worries. I would look into new heads and go.

I only made that comment cause mine finally let go after 200k miles, wasn't aware I was low on compression and then installed new heads then found my problem....