I bought this '95 2.3L used and I don't think it's ever had the coolant replaced and the system flushed. I went to flush this and nothing. Just a few drips from the petcock at the bottom of the radiator. The level in the radiator never dropped any. Decided to check out the thermostat and found the following...*Note* The bridge was stuck in the housing and the piston, spring, and part of the flange/clips are were all just sitting in the opening of the engine.





So I'm at a lost as to what to do now. The engine runs good, just needs a tune-up. The radiator being gunked up worries me though.

 

Don't see any corrosion so should be be fine in the block and heads.

Yes, rad does collect sediment at the bottom where the drain is so opening drain can produce only a slow drip, lol.

That drain plug does come out all the way, then just shoot some water in(garden hose) to break up the sediment, it will start to drain then, keep running water through rad to get all the gunk out.

Be sure to use the 192 or 195 thermostat, NOT the 180

 

Got the 192 thermostat from o'reilly last night. Going to try to shoot some water in the drain when I get off this evening. I didn't realize the drain plug came fully out.

 

Yes, it just has a couple of "forks" holding it in, squeeze them together and it should just pull out.

If you have a manual trans, i.e. no trans cooler, the rad can be pulled out fairly easy, just two bolts at the top, maybe 4 if shroud has bolts not clips.
Shroud and rad just have tabs/pegs at the bottom so lift out once top fasteners are released.
That's if you want to back flush the rad, i.e. flip it sideways to run water in the "lower outlet"(top now) to the "upper outlet"(bottom now), this will push out any larger debris that may have gotten stuck in normal top to bottom flow.
You can also lay rad flat and fill it with warm water/CLR mix, let it sit for 20min. then flush, repeat as you see fit.

Heater core is also good to back flush, it can be done just using garden hose.

 

Thanks. I'll probably just pull it out and back flush it.

 

Update on this.... Pulled the rad out and back flushed it. There was about 30 seconds of nothing but brown to come out. I turned it over and flushed it the opposite way and the same thing, both times letting clear water run through for a while. I then attempted to clear the drain hole, but it wasn't happening. I then sat it up with CLR in it for about 30 minutes.

While it was sitting with CLR, I disconnected the hoses to the heater core and flushed it. Same thing, nothing but brown coming out. I went back to the rad, but the drain plug was still plugged up. I reinstalled it in the truck and hooked everything back up. I grabbed the hose and shoved it in the fill hole and built up some pressure. I then squeezed the top side rad hose and a huge force of water blew out the debris in the drain hole. From there I just flushed like normal and my 20 year old ranger is one step closer to being back to good health.

Thanks for the tip on CLR!!!

 

Good work