Hello,

I am working on my buddies 1994 Ranger with a 2.3L I4 that has been going thru a large amount of engine coolant. The trucks has approximately 180,000 miles on it. When I had it parked on concrete I have not seen any signs of coolant on the concrete or any signs of coolant leaking. The next place I checked was inside the cab to see if there was any coolant from the heater core and there was not. The water pump has been replaced a couple of years back. I replaced the spark plugs today and did not see anything on the plugs that I would have thought were signs of coolant in the combustion chambers. With that being said I have not worked on a vehicle with a leaking head gasket before. Would there be any visible signs on the sparks plugs? If so what would I be looking for? When standing in front of the vehicle with the engine running there is a slight smell of antifreeze being "vaporized". Are there any noted issues with this engine that would cause this? Are there any other things I should check? Could it be a leaking head gasket causing this? If so how can I check for that?

Thanks for any insight!

 

If its leaking you would see a puddle. If it goes into the combustion chamber you can check by making sure the radiator is full and take cap off look for bubbles. Or if you can look into a cylinder and see that the top of piston is super clean. Water vapor is like sand paper under pressure and will knock all the carbon off the pistons