I'm changing the head gasket on a 99 ranger. I don't know why it overheated in the first place. There has to be a cause, right?
I was cleaning up the top of the engine block to put the heads back on and noticed this hole in the water pump gasket.
Also the outside of the water pump has spots on it that you might expect to see it it had been exposed to water.
Do I need to replace that gasket? The hole doesn't go all the way through the gasket. It's maybe 3-4mm deep. Could the water pump be bad and that is what caused the blown head gasket in the first place? A water pump is only $40 but I'd prefer not to do any more work than I have to.
*It might be worth noting there are some rust flakes down in the flutes (? the holes on the top of the engine block that you can look down into and see coolant) so maybe it's a good idea to take off the pump anyhow to get some of that out of there?
EDIT - It looks like I got very lucky. I'm not a mechanic and don't really know what I'm doing. That little gap in the gasket got me to replace the water pump, even if my motivations were wrong. Well the old water pump was WRECKED! I doubt it was able to push much coolant and maybe it was what caused the engine to overheat in the first place.