so its not totally mav specific but it is ford so its relevant. im looking at buying a ford with a 351. fella states that it ran hot and a cylinder head cracked. the engine still runs fine and no fluids are mixing. a set or reman heads are in the budget but a long block is not. what are the chances the bottom end is fine. its a 93 bronco. if this is inappropriate mods do your thing. Just wanted to ask some other ford guys.
May have blown a head gasket. That's more likely than a cracked head. Really depends on how long it ran hot and low on coolant. First thing off, pull the dipstick and see what the oil looks like. If it looks like sludge, walk away from it. If there's no oil on the stick, that's another deal killer. No oil on the stick and there may be crank and bearing damage. Also remove the radiator cap and see if there's any sign of oil in the coolant. Or if it's even got coolant in it. If it's a late 93, it could be a roller block in there.
i spoke with the gentleman on the phone selling the truck. he says it still runs good and no fluids are mixing. all he know is that the dude at the shop said it would need a new engine. he didnt know what that meant so i dont either. he says he still drives it on occasion but dosnt daily it.
The other problem from over heating is sometimes the rings will crack,& you won`t catch this until you put the new heads on & you realize that you have low compression.
and also in the lessor cases.. the rings can also get hot enough to "twist"(which becomes fairly evident after removing them and laying flat).. which then takes out the ring lands and bore over shorter periods of time. On top of that you can also lose some of the oil ring tension which also causes more oil consumption as well. IMO, life is too short and there are just far too many good usable motors out there to be taking these sorts of chances on simple plain jane kinda stuff.
I wouldn't brush it off without checking it out. More than once I've checked out vehicles like this that had perfectly good engines in them or ones that needed minor repairs. Bought a 93 T-Bird once that did have blown gaskets and was fine after replacing the gaskets . Paid $400 for that car. My son drove it for two years afterwards and sold it for 2 grand. The seller told me he bought the car from a woman who was told it needed a new engine by a mechanic shop. He never bothered to start the engine and was flabberghasted when I started it right up after putting a battery in it. This one had the 3.8 with aluminum heads too which were famous for blown gaskets.
