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having a problem wit my ranger. only wen the van's engine is very cool.that is wen the temperature guage is at the lowest lecel C ..especially wen i now starting up in the morning there is a lot of white smoke..wen the van heats up it runs well. i serviced the injectors but still the same thing. n e ideas.

Check you glow plugs...!!

the glow plugs are good.

I had that problem with mines and it turned out that the head was cracked.I also believed it was the glow plugs but the white smoke and loss of coolant made me think otherwise (after changing glow plugs).
It works like that for over a month like that until i finally removed the head and got it pressure tested.
viewtopic.php?f=41&t=433128&hilit=cracked+head

i does get that same problem n i need helpppp....wat to do??????????????????????

try this, open the radiator cover start the engine and if the water spitting or pitching water get yuh head pressure tested, it possible water leaking onto the pistons
and remove thermostat it possible the thermostat sticking, causing the van to overheat/loose coolant

some people believe it could be an over burn in fuel.
(which i find to be very rear in newer diesel vehicle) it Possible

sounds like cracked head... my buddies mazda bt-50 was doing the same thing.. seems a [prob with the single cam mazda/ford engines.

the Engine Coolant Temperature Sensor needs replacing.......had the same problem and changed this and the problem was gone !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I also am having the same problem with my engine as well. (I have a Mazda B2500, which has the same engine as the Ford). Same symptoms as you all, including a rough idle at cold start.

Video of the problems:




I will check my coolant temperature sensor tomorrow (or as soon as I can) and get back to you all about it. My coolant does not really drop, so I don't think it's my engine head (at least I hope so).

Question: Anyone who has a ranger or b2500 that works normal. Does your coolant drop over a month of driving? Like from the full to empty mark in the reservoir bottle.

DooMRR wrote:Question: Anyone who has a ranger or b2500 that works normal. Does your coolant drop over a month of driving? Like from the full to empty mark in the reservoir bottle.

if that is happening then you definitely have an issue, loss of coolant can be due to a loose hose or failed gasket, or on turbo engines cracked turbine housing if its water cooled......

i dont have personal experience with the WLs, but i have experienced coolant issues....

in the surf, it never overheated, when i first got it, i run that van all on the highway, passing 160k on hot days and the coolant never moved or gauge never rose.....

then one morning upon checking i realized my rad was low and overflow was overfull, so no big thing, i topped up and moved on, the next day same thing, then i did all the checks and test, you name it i did it, and it eventually was the head had some fine cracks between the valves and combustion chambers, forcing compression into the coolant and causing it to push back into the overflow....changed head with substitute gasket and problem solved, then same thing withing 3 days, pulled head again and was good, no cracks, this time using genuine gasket we assembled again, it was a used head and lasted abt a year with continuous abuse, on and off road, than after abt 9mths same thing again, work the van for 3mths just so, going on trails and thing, then went back again and pulled the head, same cracks again, so now frustrated like sheit, i bought a new head in box and genuine toyota gasket again, and she work like a charm again.......

there is a coolant tester you can buy to see if compression is being forced into the coolant and also a compression test will tell if compression is being lost in any of the cylinders, via cracked head or blown gasket....

gasket don't always blow between water and oil ports, so not all the time expect water-oil mixing......

most local WLs suffer crack heads from 75K up, without signs of overheating, the FU WLs are somewhat stronger and most dont have issues....

if it done happen, not much can do to help, sensor, thermo, viscous hub re-oil, coolant change, radiator service, coolant test, compression test are things that should be done first to make sure before breaking the engine...

those WLT engine blocks are ticking timebombs.... sorry to say but it's a matter of when, not "if"... before the engine becomes a crackhead.


Engineer buddy of mine says he thinks it's how the oil lines run on that block, there's most likely a hot spot near the front cylinder that develops.


The newer TDCI rangers (i.e. the WLC and WEC engines with the common rail fuel setup) tend not to suffer so much from head-cracking, due to slightly different oil line configs.

From online research, and talking to the mechanics at the Mazda Firm, I have to conclude that there is a small crack in my engine head. . It is very small, so I have a few things that I am currently trying at this moment (and there are signs of it working).

I never changed my engine's thermostat (and I'm doing 180,000km currently, shame on me) and I believe it's sort of sticking in the open position (which is lucky for me). The temperature sensor in the HUD fluctuates up and down, below the nominal engine temperature, hence the reason why I say it's sticking in the open position, else it would have started to overheat. Still doesn't explain why the head got a crack if the engine is running cooler than normal. Guess the temperature fluctuation caused rapid expansion and contraction causing the crack to form (I could, and probably am wrong with that theory). Whatever, the head is cracked. He is what I'm currently using to stop the problem:





Bar's Leaks - Block Seal Head Gasket Repair. Bought on Cipero Street, San Fernando, in Sherif's Automotive (Opposite Triple R electronics, near Republic Bank) for somewhere around $75 (can't remember exactly ). WARNING : PLEASE READ THE INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY BEFORE USING.

Currently, Mazda firm does not have engine thermostat for the van (priced at $175). They should be getting early March. Was also told from a friend that Ford doesn't have any at the moment either. So I bought an after market one ($135, on Cipero Street. The place is called (can't remember the spelling, Guya's. Again, it is next to Triple R Electronics). The brand is ummmm.... this:



Now to use it. To drain the engine and flush ALL the coolant out of the system, I took off the inlet water hose to the radiator (the one at the base of the radiator) and took out the thermostat. Got this from the Mazda manual for those who need it:





If you simply follow the inlet hose from the radiator back to the engine, you will find the thermostat housing very easy.



I simply not pushed a garden hose into the inlet hose of the radiator and sort of sealed it using my hand. The water filled up the radiator and pushed all the coolant (at least I hope so) out of the engine. I let it flow through for a good 5 minutes as I heard that coolant mixing with the stop leak can cause clogging. After, I put back in the OLD thermostat and assembled the engine (why add the new thermostat and run the stop leak through it if your old one still works?) The stop leak is a dense fluid with something resembling sand in it. Didn't want to use my good thermostat with that flowing through it. Follow the instructions on the stop leak carefully and hope it works.

Oh, the instructions say use the entire bottle for big engines, and half the bottle for 4 cylinder engines with no A/C. So I ended up using 3/4 of the stop leak.

Also, this is what my old thermostat looked like:


I scraped off the build up of that green sediment thingy with a small screwdriver. Can't remember what it's called at the moment. I am currently at step 10, so late tomorrow evening I will report on the results. As of right now, the hard vibrations I normally get at start up has reduced significantly after about 10 seconds of running from cold start. Before, it took like 4 minutes of idle RPM to idle normal. So that is a good sign.

Quick update:

This is what the stop leak looks like when mixed in water:


And this is the sandy stuff I was talking about in the stop leak:

There is plenty of it. The instructions never said anything about changing the thermostat, so it should be fine using a new one. If the one you are using is giving problems, then use a new one. Else, use the old one, then change it.

i remvoced my thermo....van works well..... 350,000km on a b2500

streetbeastINC. wrote:i remvoced my thermo....van works well..... 350,000km on a b2500

did you have that van from new?

how do you know the head was not replaced before?

but if that worked for you dan, thats great, i would not recommend it and i wont do that, cause that fugged up my 1KZ.....

Update : After a week of driving, the stop leak worked. Barely any white smoke on mornings with cold start. Does still idle a little rough, but FAR better than before. The stop leak works.

Cracks on Diesel engines unfortunately means the eventually end of it, from my experiences. I had a few Diesel engine that showed signs of cracks and tried all sorts of things to fix the problem. Some worked and only prolonged the problem. While the engine continued to work it was not efficient and always sound louder than before.
All you can do it continue to keep it cool and try not to rev it out. Do not remove the thermostat it helps with cooling once your radiator and clutch fan is working properly.

Keep us updated on how it goes.

Jus wanted to know where exactly is the thermostat in vehicles located???. Is it not between the upper radiator hose and the head?? I was jus wondering cuz I'm seeing in ur pic it's between the lower hose and the head...

fordranger wrote:Jus wanted to know where exactly is the thermostat in vehicles located???. Is it not between the upper radiator hose and the head?? I was jus wondering cuz I'm seeing in ur pic it's between the lower hose and the head...

It's between the lower hose and the block..

Yup removed it at 150. It use to smokea bit on cold nigjts onstart up though...excess fuel burn

I get this same problem with my wrangler but for me it is random, talked to the guys at lifestyle and they said is the crap diesel we have here. Started using a AMS oil diesel treatment and it stopped the problem, maybe just some unburnt diesel.

A friend also having this problem on his vigo. However he doesn't service the van properly so can't say what's the problem