[align=left]I have a 1992 Ford Eddie Bauer 4 X 4 Explorer that overheated. I changed the radiator, thermistat, coolant temperature sensor, backflushed the heater core and water pump and engine water jacket. There is the presence of anti freeze in the oil and the truck exhausts white smoke even on a 70 degree day. Now the truck is also idling rough like there is a vacuum leak. I have checked all the vacuum hoses and checked the idle speed. Once started, it uses water and anti freeze at the rate of 1 to 2 gallons in 10 to 15 minutes. Somebody give me an idea as to what is going on and if it is better to have the head changed or to just buy another engine, whether it be rebuilt, used, or have this one overhauled
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You have either a head gasket or cracked cylinder head. The bad thing about this is you will not know wheteher or not the head is needed till you pay someone to remove them from engine. If heads are bad then it woulda probably been cheaper to go used engine, but if head are good then it is cheaper to rebuild. Stop driving this vehicle now...........every second of run time is taking a chance of damaging the lower end of the engine. which would answer your question very quickly.

 

Thanks. The price of the engine is just slightly more than the price of new heads, the gaskets & the bolts, not to mention the labor that goes along with that. I will continue searching the web for a used or rebuilt engine. At least the labor for an engine will be less than the labor for the heads.
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I agree with Wheelsup they had head gasket issues on that year Explorers.If you have a lot of miles on it and its nice it may be worth putting an engine in.

 

That's the best idea - but make sure the engine is remanufactured - NOT rebuilt. Rebuilt engines have usually been bored out and cannot be properly fueled by the injection computer which is set to run with only a stock motor with the stock bore (unless you can rewire one of those). You could rebuild yours only you'd also have to instruct the machine shop to resleeve it to original bore size (like $100 per cylinder).

 

P.S. If you do decide to rebuild after a leak of the sort - get the block and heads magnafluxed to check for cracks first.

 

Thanks for the advice. I am currently looking for a reman engine for this truck. Everything else works great and it was one of Fords best Explorer years.
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Thanks for the info. I searched several different online recalls & TSP's but didn't find head gasket problems. Reply back with a Recall or TSP site that I could further research other things Ford may have had wrong with either it's engine or the 4 X 4 transmission system. I am currently looking for a reman engine for this truck. Everything else works fine and I understand that 1992 was one of the better years Ford had for the Explorer.
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