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Ranger with low eninge temp

B

BigDanT

Member
I recently bought a 96 Ford Ranger from my BIL, the little truck has 145k on it but runs and drives great. Only thing that really bothers me on this truck is it never seems to bring the engine temp up, gauge will move a tad when running down the road but never into the "normal operating" range. I, of course, thought it must have a stuck open thermostat so this is what I've done so far...checked coolant level, that was fine, replaced thermostat with the recommended 192 degree "failsafe" unit, replaced temp sensor in thermostat housing and checked the fan clutch for leakage...it looked fine. I got it all back together and started her up, got the air out of system, ran it for 20 minutes in my heated shop with no change in low engine temp. I still wasn't sure about the fan clutch so I removed the fan blade and ran truck for about 15 minutes in the shop, the temp did move up a bit but even then it didn't reach operating temp. A little more info...top radiator hose gets warm/hot but not 192 degrees hot, heater puts out warm air but not hot air. I have searched the interweb and noticed this to be a common problem but have not found a solution so far. Anyone had this issue??? Anyone have any suggestion on what to try next??
Thanks Dan
 
If you can find another gauge to temp. hook up under the hood see if it reads the same as the dash one,or buy an after market gauge and mount it under the dash to verify your temp.
 
try blocking some of the radiator with a piece of cardboard and see if that brings up the temperature.
 
It's a Ford! I had that problem with a Ford once and was told that the little hole in the thermostat that allows continuous circulation was too large.
 
Sorry about that Hobo...2.3lt 4 cylinder. Don't know about blocking radiator with cardboard, as I said , it was sitting in a heated shop, not moving, and it still wont get hot. Mike , I will try another temp gauge or maybe even a new sending unit. Russ, is that hole in the thermostat or the housing, this thermostat has a rubber seal and fits up inside the housing, I don't remember seeing a hole in the stat but will go to auto parts store and look at a new one.
Thanks Dan
 
friend of mine had a 93 mustang with the 4 cyl, car always ran colder, he had half the radiator blocked before it would make up any heat. a candy thermometer in the rad fill cap will give you a temp reading of coolant when fully warmed up.
 
Try putting the t-stat in a pan of water with a thermometer and heat it on a burner. Watch at what temperature it opens at.

Dusty
 
Russ, Dusty, and John you are on the track. Had a brand new bad one, also found that the hole is supposed to be REALLY small. Some even have that little rivet that rattles around in there. It is there to let any air in the system out and give a tiny amount of circulation going up till the hot water will open the "T" stat. Couple of old time mechanics advice. Now here is a new one for me. My Expediton heater should be hotter and I thought I would check the temp. You can't get in the stupid radiator! There is no cap on the top of the tank. Cap is on the remote over flow tank only. That sucks.
 
I'm only gonna pull that tstat out if absolutely necessary. I lost a great deal out blood and hair getting the old one out and the new one in so I think I'll go with sticking a thermometer in the radiator....
 
(quoted from post at 06:27:19 01/26/16) I'm only gonna pull that tstat out if absolutely necessary. I lost a great deal out blood and hair getting the old one out and the new one in so I think I'll go with sticking a thermometer in the radiator....
Click to expand...

Get'er good and hot how do the heater hoses feel... To get good heat the inlet needs to be hot so hot you will not hold on it it long.
The outlet will be bearable but HOT...

Those themo's are a beach to swap out, I go OEM but not say'N yours is a issue...
 
Change the thermostat. I had the same thing happen to me and after some time I finally pulled the new thermostat I had installed out and looked at it and it was wide open. New doesn't always = good.
Frank
 

He could do it with the old one if he wanted to play but as hard a job as it is on this engine it would be the last thing I would go back to...
 
Fail safe thermostats are designed to lock into the open position in the event of an overheat. Once locked open, they are scrap. Just a thought - if the engine (or thermostat) were to get sufficiently hot while running it and filling it, it may have already locked in the open position. I'm not a fan of fail safe thermostats. I'll stick with the good old dependable standard type.
 
Hobo...Bingo... the tstat RR is a PIA. The old one was a Motorcraft and if it was stuck it was stuck in the closed not open position. I knew as soon as I took it out and saw it closed it most likely was not he culprit. Also, the heater hoses never got hot neither did the upper rad hose.
 
It has to be the thermostat, nothing else controls temp or lack of. Speaking of the failsafe thermostat design, it is junk. If someone had one that worked I would consider them lucky. I have seen these get up to temp once or maybe twice and stick open.
 
Get the Motorcraft thermostat and get the one that's rated for OEM temp. There is too much aftermarket junk out there. Also, make sure your heater core is not plugged. You might even try to gently backflush it. It's amazing how much junk a heater core can hold.
BTW, I've got a '98 Ranger with the 3.0 V6 and a five speed tranny.
 
Open the radiator cap, start it up cold, idle it up, look for circulation. If it's flowing through the radiator cold, the thermostat is open.
 
My first thought too-when I saw the post this morn, before the replies... despite what he said about replacing with a new one. I"d cook it on the stove in a sauce pan, with a candy thermometer, to see when it opens/closes, or stays open. Used to be we could trust new parts....
 
I had an 81 F100 with a 300 six cylinder like that. Changed the thermostat several(stant and motorcraft) times and it still woulden't get hot. Finally got a wide piece of heavy rubber and blocked of half the radiator. Drove that truck 20 years like that and it never overheated even in the middle of the summer when it was 100 degrees out. Coldest running vehicle I've ever seen.
 
Big Dan

A priceless quote that I've picked up

"Global warming: your one stop crisis shop"

So I could "tongue in cheek" suggest that your truck is telling you it is ready for you to be a climate refugee and move to somewhere like southern New Mexico where it can handle the temperatures.
 
Steve...I've had the cap off several times while filling it, never noticed any circulation. I'll do it again this morning just to be sure. Keep in mind, I know for a fact this first tstat was not stuck open, I think the theory that there is a tstat failure has to be that the tstat is opening too soon rather than it is stuck open. How many times have you seen that happen
 
I had a 93 Dodge Dakota that did that for years. I changed thermostats several times, fan clutch, etc., to no avail. It wasn't a big deal as I live in Alabama and it wasn't my primary driver. Unfortunately I had to take it north for a couple of weeks one winter, and it was very uncomfortable, I wound up blocking the radiator with pieces of cardboard with holes cut in it depending on the temp, and finished the trip without frostbite.

That episode prompted me to take another look when I got home. I finally reluctantly followed some guy's advice on a message board and flushed the heater core. From that point on, I had warm air in the cab and the temp gauge settled in the normal range. I fully realize that flushing the heater core to solve this problem is completely counter-intuitive, but it worked for me....
 

Have a '70 F250, no heat in the cab 15 years ago. Tried to flush it, no joy. Bought a new one and when I had both new and old out, the old one was probably two pounds heavier than the new one. Just packed solid with rust....Another possibility for no heat on a truck with A/C is the blend air door not blocking the air flow thru the evaporator.

Another failure point is some trucks have a heater water valve in the heater hose and that's not opening completely. I like the non-contact thermometer guns to check the temp on various parts of the system. You can tell in an instant where the heat is or not.
 
The temp sender for the gauge is at the LH rear of engine, its in a tight spot and hard to find but that's where it is. The sender is a single wire sensor and the wire color is red/white. The engine coolant temp sensor you replaced is for the engine control computer (ECT sensor)

You really need to verify the engine temp with possibly an infrared gun or some other type of device, the gun is a pretty good way to check because you can move it around to different spots easily. Then you can go on and check the heater too, a cold/warm hose going in and cool hose going out of the core might indicate a restricted core, plus these trucks are known to have broken blend door splines too.

I have seen a lot of blend door failures on the ranger/explorer/mountaineer line. You should be able to lower the glove box and see the actuator on top of the HVAC case. The actuator should just snap on and pop off a plastic bracket. Then you can see if the if the splined shaft for the door is broken with a mirror.
 

Have you ever fixed a broken blend door by drilling and inserting a cotter pin in the blend door motor to catch whats left of the blend door shaft. I have done several none have came back.

I have pulled the evaporator from under the hood and replaced the blend door from the front side also with a very slite modification of the blend door.
 
4play...gonna bring it back in this weekend, trying to find a IR gun with no luck, guess i'll just go buy one. Can I get by with one from HF or should
it be a high dollar one? I found the sensor and like the tstat does not look fun to replace...will let you all know what I find out. Thanks Dan
 

HF one works, I have one in the garage and one in the kitchen to measure fryer oil temp, griddle temp, and any other use I can find.
 
I have a gun from Snap on and HF, they both work great and I only see a 1 degree difference if even that.
 
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