Bought my daughter a 94 explorer4.0 in february started having overheating problems in march. She told me it was taking 1 gallon of coolant per day. and cooking over the resvoir. I changed the thermostat, rad cap, flushed the system. Now i see while refilling coolant the exhaust pushing water vapor and drips. Im thinking headgaskets.
Any one ever done this repair with engine in the car? Is there any big issues im not thinking about that yall can clue me in on? I have done this work before on v8 engines this will be first on explorer. Help guys thanks

 

 

well i have another thought that you make think sounds crazy, but here goes. everyone has heard of "stop leak" to fix radiators. do you know that BARS makes a head gasket and cracked head sealer? dont laugh, this stuff does work. read on the web site and get some info. You can get a bottle at Auto Zone for about $10. It does not work with antifreeze, you need to drain out the coolant, fill with plain water, and run for 20 minutes then drain the water. Finally, put the head sealer in with clean water. Let the truck idle for 20 minutes in the drive way. Check the overflow tank and see if the bubbles stop. Shut it off and let it cool down. Maybe startup again and drive slow or let it idle again for 20 minutes. When done, you drain and flush with water, then add antifreeze mix.. FOr $10. what have you got to loose?

 

http://www.barsproducts.com/1100.htm

 

My experience with those types of 'sealers' has been that they will also clog your radiator, heater core, and anywhere else the water travels.

 

most of that is old wives tails. they do not plug the radiator or heater core. the stuff is normally looking for a leak to atmosphere or the combustion chamber, a differencne in pressure, not a restriction in the system iteself, such as a tube or orifice.

 

I used Steel Seal on mine (had same exact problem) - worked great for a while, but then eventually came back - I ended up replacing the engine with a boneyard one, and runs a lot better than it ever did, esp on the hwy...

But, Steel Seal will work in antifreeze, and the offer a money back guarantee - so, you can't lose.

I thought the 4.0 OHV engines had Cast heads though, not Alum...

the best stuff to use is a product called thermogasket - but it doesn't work in antifreeze - also, much more money than Barsleak, but what's your time worth?

 

I used Steel Seal on my son's 92 ex, 150,000km/6yrs since we did the job and still running. He has 453,000Kn on the truck and is on his 3rd tranny.

We just did a 2001 Oldsmobile van 2 weeks ago, either that or scrap it, we shall see how long this one lasts.

 

Aqua - I actually think the product still held up mostly, but one time I goosed it, getting on an on ramp, and #4 was totally gone - felt like the road was rough, it was vibrating so badly - and then I think it threw a rod, or something - load clicking noise - limped it home....

so, then I pulled #4's plug, and saw that there was metal between the contacts, as if the piston melted to it or something - or maybe the steel seal did that? not sure...

this reminds me to call them to ask for a refund - but I can say that it does work if you have a minor issue, and will last, if you don't use the thing to tow with, or climb hills at 70mph - if lasted a little while, but I always babied it....

the new (to me) engine will pull a hill at 70mph in OD - and the other engine never did that, so there was a loss of compression for sure, even though the product held up ok...

My 2 cents? if I was to do it all again, I would have sold it right after I used the SS product, and bought something else, like a 4 door XLT (this is a 2dr sport)

I found, that the engine swap was the same labor as doing the heads, and I got a one year warranty on the used engine, which was actually cheaper than a pair of new heads... and many seasoned engine guys will tell you that if you rebuild the top end, it can often cause the bottom end to become the new weaker part - makes sense, since everything wears together as the engine breaks in, etc...

SS is the cheaper way, and it will work in Antifreeze, which nothing else will as far as I know...

if you live in AZ or CA, or somewhere where the temps are never below freezing, you should try the Thermogasket stuff - it's like $100, but they claim it fixes stuff that nothing else does, etc....

in anycase, good luck!

 

You are correct I just did my daughters explorer over the weekend and changed the head gaskets drivers side was leaking at the water port . they are indeed cast iron heads. thanks Bob

 

Well guys I did try the different sealants and if I would have been patient they may have worked well. But my daughter uses this daily and has my 2 grandkids in there with her. So i opted for new head gasket set. cost me 118.00 and 2 days work in the evenings. not a real big deal just being carefull to mark allthe wires and vacumn lines. #6 had a blown area at the water port. And another funny thing was upon removal I broke the head bolts loose with a standard 3/8 ratchet with one hand. this car had 145,000 miles. now the passanger side took some breaking loose. got me on this one anyone else ever seen this. Now i got a new problem. car runs perfect now carrys great oil pressure. But when it sits overnight when you start it, it has a nasty lifter tick for about 5 seconds then smooths out fine and quiet. Should have my azz kicked for not changing out lifters at the same time. I dunno coincidence any ideas ford boys?? thanks for the input guys.

 

ahhh lifter tick.... Have the same thing with my 3.0L in my aerostar... it really doesn't hurt anything, as long as you don't gun it before the engine warms up - had mine for about 3-4 years now - I was toying with trying some of that RXauto stuff - supposed to be a great product, and all you do it add it to oil, and drive it... but I was always afraid it would make the engine worse somewhere else... and I've just learned to live with the tick - Just tell her to baby it, and let it idle for a minute or 2 when cold...

Me? if I had the time to tinker with pulling the heads, I would have most likely replaced them, since as we all know, it's so labor intensive... but as long as it goes away, and you have good compression, I'd say drive it as is...

when you have the lifter tick, does the engine run rough too? or just on high idle, smooth?

 

Bull, I have experienced this first hand. The stop leak products do plug up heater cores and the insides of the radiator fins. They don't do it immediately, it takes some time, but they do clog up the system. Against a head gasket leak, they stand very little change against the 120-150 psi pressure of the combustion chamber. If you have ahead gasket leak, you need to replace the head gasket, and correct any warpage in the head itself. Any engine with an aluminum head is prone to head warpage.

 

these are cast heads, - but BR is correct - There is nothing like having the heads redone, Gaskets replaced, etc - but the stop leak stuff, I have found, is a stop gap - like a band aid, until you can get stitches :-) -

I think that the cheaper products might cause clogs everywhere, which is why you can buy the barsleak stuff for $10 or the TG stuff for $100... Steel Seal was like $70 I think...

I also think that the majority of problems that come up, are from people that don't really follow the directions correctly - I know with the TG stuff, it is a very precise way that they make you use the product, as is with SS too... not only in the way to apply it, but also how you prep, etc - it's not just a "pour it in, and it fixes it" deal...

The thing is cost - if you don't have time/money/expertise to pull the heads, these are a much better alternative to junking the car... but if you have something that is of any value besides the engine, and you want to keep it for a while, new heads/engine/gasket best way to go...

In my situation, I found a happy medium - a used engine with about the same miles, installed and warrantied for 1year P&L for $1200 - Seemed like a no brainer, since I knew I'd be keeping the truck for at least a year, and for $100 a month, it's cheaper than a car payment :-)

I wouldn't trust a $10 product to completely seal a cracked head or blown gasket without it doing other damage, and or not lasting very long... even the SS stuff didn't last more than a year, or about 10K miles, but I know Aqua has a better result with his application - so I guess it just depends... even the guys are SS say 3 years - that's what they really will claim... even though they say it will last "forever"

Just my 2 pennies....

 

I had a failure the first application in the 92 even following the instructions to the T, SS sent me a replacement kit. On the second application we let the engine run at the prescribed 212deg for 10 min each time (3). Temp was monitored with an IR.

I am sure most problems with this product is the lack of cooking/expansion time/temperature combination.

I have now used SS on several vehicles with good results, and the engines are high milage and not babied, lots of off road work.