'92 rangie with coolant loss

[waparamedic]

Hopefully someone can give me a hand diagnosing why my rangie is loosing coolant Over the last couple months I have noticed a loss of coolant in the expansion tank in my '92 rangie. Its nothing big and there are no signs of external leaks around the head gasket, the block or any of the hoses etc. There is also no sign of coolant in the engine oil. There is no loss in power or knocking as I would expect with a blown head gasket. This was actually replaced approx 18 months ago. Its been suggested that I might just need to check the torque on the head as this may have loosened over time, or that there could be a seperation between the that cylinder sleeves and the block as apparntly this can happen also and allow small amounts of coolant to enter the head. The result is that the rangie starts perfectly, runs normally but if i stop for short time and then restart the engine i get a big cloud of white smoke from the exhaust. Coolant seems to be gettingin somewhere as it being lost from the tank. I plan to get a compression test done to see if that shows any thing. If any one has ever had a similar problem I would love to hear what happenned and how it was resolved. Cheers.

[camel_landy]

Couple of areas you can try:

* Head gasket - I know you've alrady mentioned it but it could be leaking at the very front or rear of the engine. Either down the block or into cylinders 1, 2, 7 or 8.
* Heater matrix - You might have a small leak inside the dash!

FWIW - You might as well just pop some radweld in and see if that cures it.

M

[theg]

Hi .The cloud of white smoke is definitely water in the combustion . Sounds like you have the cracked block scenario which mine also has . Can only be a couple of things . The coolant can really only enter the two front and two rear cylinders as the water jackets only pass through to the heads in these location . Pull your spark plugs and look for the one thats steam cleaned compared to all the others . If its any plug other than the 2 front or 2 rear cylinders then its usually a cracked block between two cylinders . If the clean plug is front or rear cylinders then it could be head gasket or a cracked block .
When head gasket was done 18months ago was it cause engine overheated ? If so this usually is the end of the block they cant handle an overheat !
Water can also leak into chambers via intake manifold gasket but it is unlikely .