I was driving my 2001 Ford Ranger with the 3.0 V6 and I heard a belt squeal and noticed my truck started to get hot so I pulled over and let it cool off and started to check some things. The belt was not off of the pulleys in any way and doesn't
t have any noticeable cracks or missing chucks in the grooves. I haven't tested the belt tensioner yet but I'm not sure if the belt is at fault for the truck getting hot. The truck also was steaming out coolant by the upper radiator hose but that hose doesn't have any cracks or anything and the hose clamp is tight so I'm not sure what is the real culprit with the heating issue. I got the truck home by someone bringing me some water to put in the radiator then making a stop at my friends house to fill it all the way with the hose water and for the rest of the drive back it never got above the middle on the temp gauge again. Can anyone tell me what to look for so I can fix whatever caused the coolant to get hot enough to boil off?

EDIT: The truck does make a slight belt squeal when I start it up that I either didn't notice before or wasn't there before.

 

Welcome to the forum

There are a couple of metal coolant fittings on the front of the 3.0l engine, elbows, and they rust out
There could be a hole in one and it was spraying coolant on the belt, and caused it to squeal

Rubber hoses can also get pinholes which you CAN NOT SEE at all, they get a fine spray once system has pressure inside, wet belt = squeaky belt

You can rent cooling system pressure testers, its basically a radiator cap with a hand pump and gauge attached
You install it on a COLD engine
Pump up pressure to 20psi(normal is 16psi)
And wait and watch
If pressure is dropping you HAVE a leak
With cold engine hot water/coolant won't evaporate but will drip out so easier to locate any leaks
Find the leak

 

Water pump could be going bad, it relies directly on the belt to drive it, Mine actually was so rusted out there was almost no impeller left on it.

 

Actually later the day that I posted that I noticed a thin stream of water coming from that upper radiator hose after I parked at the Walmart so I think the hose has a pinhole in it and that steam did cause the belt to squeal. Thanks for the help. I'll close the forum if replacing that hose solves the problem.