So when I bought my 92 3.0 pickup I put a remanned motor in it and it's had the weirdest no start issue since day one. After the truck has reached running temp and I turn it off for about 30 mins or more it refuses to run, it will start and run right for about two seconds and then it bogs down and dies and won't crank again, I have to let it cool off.
ive tryed everything under the sun to fix it plus done countless hours of forum research to try and figure it out. The only thing I've found that works was taking a water hose and running over the engine temp sensor while cranking it, works every time. I know that's probably not good for the motor, that's not the point of this post.
So one day I decided to wire a second engine temp sensor inside my truck with some switches so I could switch between the sensor in the cab and the sensor in the truck, this seemed to somewhat fix the issue, I know it's ghetto but still it gets me where I need to go.
i recently started thinking that this issue might be head gasket related, my thinking is that maybe after running the truck metal starts expanding allowing coolant into the cylinders where it sits until I try to crank it up again making it hard to start, and the only reason my temp sensor rig works is buy making the fuel mixture richer where it can overcome any starting difficulty. I'm just guessing here but I would like to have some other opinions on this, let me know what you think.

by the way there are some other symptoms to suggest a head gasket problem I know I should fix it but my rear third is also shot and I'm a full time college student so I currently have about $2 in the bank

 

Do you have any other symptoms of a blown head gasket ...like missing coolant, obvious steam in the exhaust, water in the oil? If a lot of coolant is leaking into a cylinder, you will have a huge cloud of steam, but if the leak is small, it is much less noticeable.
Do a combustion block test. Very effective and cheap. Purchase the test fluid for $8.00 and get the loaner tool from a local store like OReilly's

http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/Re...d=loaner+tools

 

I do not know the 3.0 but unless you have low compression or other symptoms of a blown head gasket, that would be the least thing I would consider at first. Are you getting coolant into the cylinders?

 

My question isn't whether or not I have a blown head gasket im asking if head gasket issues can cause the no start condition I was talking about.

 

Yes..

 

I would do the basic tests to see/eliminate the head gasket possibility. Simplest/first are compression and cooling system pressure.

 

So the trick he is using I'll explain that for everyone else because he doesn't seem to be interested and just really wanted someone to tell him "No, swap out the ____ sensor"...

​​​​​​when the ECU sees a cold coolant temperature it uses the start up enrichment.

This feeds extra fuel, both from the cold start injector and a bit from the primary injectors..

extra fuel is either over coming the lack of compression on one or more cylinders (more fuel more bang), or rinsing off the wet (oil or coolant) from the spark plugs.

It also fires up the cold air system (AAV, AV, IACV, what ever you want to call it) and gives more air, which will make it fire better (more air + more fuel = bigger bang)
And allow it to suck better similar to opening the throttle plate when doing a compression test.

Say it's bad rings, with a less restrictive air passage it will be less likely to suck air past the rings it's similar if the gasket failed between a coolant or oil passage and isn't actually flooding the cylinder. The air being a fluid will take the path of least resistance much like any current (that's why we call electrical flow current, thanks to Mr Ampré and Ms Cárron for that one)..