Bought a 1994 ranger a few months ago with some problems. It recently dumped coolant out around the water pump. So while that was being fixed, I had the radiator, hoses, and thermostat replaced. While the truck no long leaks coolant, it was running hot. When the truck is warm, the needle lays on the far right line in the normal range. To me, that's too close to overheating.

So I went to my local autozone an purchased a 160 degree thermostat. While it runs cooler, it's still running around 3/4 of the way on the temperature gauge. Looking for some ideas as to what else I should look for or other things that may need replaced. Thanks for any help you all can give!

 

Is the coolant tank boiling when you shut the truck off? You can usually hear it pretty easily. Just a thought, but if it is, try replacing the radiator cap.


GB :)

 

No it's not boiling and I also replaced the radiator cap too, forgot to mention it. Can the gauge be getting a faulty reading or something? It ran fine before it lost coolant. The gauge would go up once it warmed up but would come back down. After replacing the whole cooling system, the gauge has been reading high every day. Just doesn't make sense that it would be overheating after receiving a brand new cooling system.

Any other ideas?

 

I'm all out of guesses then. You need to get a good reading of the actual temperature it's running at just to be sure.. Otherwise, you may be throwing money at it and worrying for no reason.

 

How do I do that? Someone told me to get the vehicle warmed up and take the temperature of the coolant while its running. Doesn't sound like a smart idea to open the radiator cap of a running vehicle, but maybe that's how it's done.

 

Could be a little air in the system? Remove the radiator cap while the engine is cold and off, then massage the upper and lower hoses and look for air bubbles in the radiator. If that does nothing, keep the cap off and run the engine and wait for the thermostat to open or engine to heat up same thing. Look for bubbles just like last time. Dont worry coolant wont shoot out. If the caps off it wont build pressure. If no bubbles then there's probably no air in the system

 

Thanks for the help....I'll try this tomorrow.

 

I forgot to mention that when its running and up to temp, with the cap off also massage the hoses. Just be careful of the fan!

 

While the Cap is off and the engine is warm enough to open the T-Stat, check to see how the flow coolant is inside of the radiator.
If you can’t see the coolant moving then the radiator may need work.

 

Thanks for all the help, the truck is running good now. Must have been air in the system. Runs great and has yet to go past the "halfway" mark on the gauge.