I finally got the trip stuff put away a couple days ago
Around Albia on the way home I noticed it was running a hair warm. Not really hot but instead of running its usual 195* it was a tad over 200*. It was mid 80's so it was one of the warmer days of the trip. I stopped and checked the coolant level at supper that night at Albia. Level was fine and it wasn't that far out of the norm so we continued on, hit a cold front and some light rain and it cooled down to normal.
While checking oil levels I noticed this, that won't help cooling any.
I have always hated the flex hose. I had a shorter one on it for years until I did the body mounts, I noticed it had almost rubbed thru on the steering box. So I got a longer one that swooped down more and missed that corner of the steering box. I suppose the hose got nice and supple on the drive and the wire shifted, it actually feels like it is broke where the crease is. I tried to squish it open with a ziptie to aid in troubleshooting which did nothing.
4.0 radiator has that stupid angled outlet so fearing the worst I bought both a '94 Explorer lower hose and a '01 oil cooler delete 5.0 Explorer radiator hose and a hunk of 1.5" pipe figuring I could splice something together.
5.0 Hose on its own ain't gonna work.
I get to poking around with the part I trimmed off...hey we might be on to something.
So moral of the story... I shouldn't have settled for good enough years ago.