Hey guys-

I was heading to school this morning and my truck started having what appeared to be a knock, but I'm not sure. I was running late, so I had done about 85mph for several miles, but slowed back down to 55 for the rest of the trip. I'm just cruising along minding my own business, when I hear a pop and see a little puff come out the front left side of my truck. I thought maybe I had hit a ball of ice and it just sprayed or whatever, but it definately wasn't. I guess the radiator hose had blown, and I kept going for about 5 miles. The heater started blowing out cool air, and I heard a little peck. I thought it was just one of my old belts on my truck rattling as usual, but it got louder with time. By the time I had decided to stop it sounded awful, and died when I let off the gas. I popped the hood to find a half melted and destroyed main radiator hose, and the breather on my valve cover had some interesting black/brown stuff on the top of it. Not sure if it was oil, or where exhaust had came through. I'm freaking heartbroken, either way, but I just wanted your opinions. I'm pretty sure it's blown, but I wanted someone else's 2 cents. I was looking at a '90 Ranger (4Cyl, 5Spd), but that's a lot of lost power over the 302 (Early 70's motor). If someone could tell me if that ranger would be even worth messing with, I'd appreciate it. I need the milage, as I'm going to college in a couple months, but my stepdad says that it won't be very hill friendly, etc..Anyway, I'm shutting up now. Thanks guys!

 

if you are going to college and want to save money , go with the ranger ,if its going to be paid for , if not swap in a rebuilt into your present ride, bob

 

guessing that that brown liquid was rusty radiator fluid, the noise you heard was probably your water pump looking for some lubricant... no antifreeze, no lubricant. Same thing with lack of heat, no antifreeze/water, no heat. Cheapest thing to do is put on a new hose, fill with water & antifreeze & try running it.

 

it it wont run, and you think you may have blown the motor, you may have to re-ring it. Ive re-ringed engines before, they are easy really. You have to pull the engine. Take the heads off flip it over take the pan off, disconnect hte rods and pop them out through the top of the cylinder, where the heads where, put the new rings on, and hone your cylinders, put it back together (with new ghaskets) instal it and bam your done. Took me a day to do mine, and it cost me about 200 dollars total for hte rings+ghaskets.

I have a write up about it thats better than the crash course version i just gave you.

But the first thing you wanna do before all that is make sure its actually the rings...your pipes will smoke and there will be pressure behind your PVC...more than normal.

 

If you want to keep the truck, I would start with a new or reman water pump with new hoses and fresh fluid, and a new thermostat.
Hopefully you did not overheat the motor too much. I bought an 85 f150 that had the same thing happen, and the motor ended up with a blown rod bearing.
If the motor did get extremely hot, you may be looking at alot of problems. The only way to know is if you fix the coolant system (water pump etc.) start the motor and listen for bad noises. If you hear bad noises, you have most likely blown your motor. It will cost you more money than usual for a motor rebuild because the block and heads will most likely be warped, and machine work is not very cheap.

The ranger does not sound like a bad choice though if you are going to college. The milage will be better, and will cost less to maintain. My friends have had good luck with late 80's, early 90's rangers as beater trucks.

It just all depends on where your priorities are. Good Luck.

 

I would refill it and see what happens, you might get lucky. My wife drove our chrysler home frome work, where a rubber cap on the radiator blew off, and leaked out all the coolant. Not knowing this, she proceeded to drive the car to town and back, about a hour of driving with no coolant. I asked if she had noticed the gauge reading hot. She said yeah, it was pegged almost the entire time I drove it. Before you think my wife is nuts, let me explain. the car was having heating problems when we got it, but I had fixed everything and this was the first time she had driven since then, so she assumed it was still acting weird. Anyway, I just refilled the radiator, and it seems to be okay, no problems yet, which is good for a motor known to crack heads under normal use.

 

...off topic, syco.. never thought your wife was nuts, just a chick. Sorry to all of you motor head chicks out there. My last boss drove her car home from a quick lube place with the oil light on.... she thought it meant the oil was just changed. You can guess what it truly meant....

 

put a new hose and thermostat like mentioned earlier.
fill up with water and make sure there's oil in it.

see if it turns over. if it does and it runs, i'd do some TLC like new hoses, belts, flush coolant system, change oil, valve cover gasket, etc.

but first, don't shell out any cash until you know if it will even turn over.

 

check your oil...if it's milky (kinda like sausage gravy) something blew (probably head gasket) if it's not there a real solid chance that everythings ok

 

MMMmmmmmmmm, sausage gravy... now im hungry.

 

Well guys, I fixed the radiator hose, went about 2 miles and it overheated and started knocking like a ****, so I came home, and it had blown the heater core and the damn near brand new radiator is busted, I believe, so I gave up and sold it to my step dad. He bought me that '90 Ranger today for $200, and I'm happy he did. That truck was nothin' but back luck since I got it, and I'm done. The Ranger is anhilated body wise, but runs and shifts like a champ. 4 Cylinder, 5 Speed manual. Shift pattern is kinda tight and gives me some issues because I ain't used to driving a manny, but it's cool. Anyone know how hard it is to swap fenders from an 80's Ranger onto a 90? The '90 has the wrap around turn signals, and the other fenders I have don't. I heard I'd have to change all the metal that holds in the headlights and such to swap fenders, but oh well. I'll post in a Ranger forum too. Just thought I'd let everyone know that Old Blue is gone. It's a sad day, but a happy one at the same time. Thanks for all the help guys.