What did you do to your Ranger today? (Part Deux!)

[sgtsandman]

What is that stuff all over everywhere?

I'm just kidding, it cold here too. I finally broke out the hoody.

 

[oldgeek]

That rag covering roughly half the radiator is PERFECT for the winter apparently... last late summer/fall I flushed the cooling system, put in a new Motorcraft thermostat and switched the heater core hoses to try that which helped but not much... being a Lima under 50F the temp needle barely moved so barely staying in closed loop fuel control most likely since the fuel mileage drops almost 10% when it's cold...

Anywho, this morning it was about 35F, the temp gauge went up to where it should be within about 4 miles and I had heat all the way to work and home... I'd pull the fan but then there's times like my way home tonight where it took 20 minutes to drive 3 miles... all in 45-55mph zone... stupid rubber neckers...

Covering the radiator with a rag....

Is that over the grill?

 

[superj]

a guy i used to work with would put a piece of cardboard between the radiator and the grill on his van because it wouldn't get warm in the coastal north carolina winters around camp lejuene

 

[sgtsandman]

a guy i used to work with would put a piece of cardboard between the radiator and the grill on his van because it wouldn't get warm in the coastal north carolina winters around camp lejuene

I’ve done the cardboard trick on another vehicle. The trick here is remembering to remove it since the weather likes to bounce around so much. Darn near over heated the engine a time or two because I forgot.

 

[scotts90ranger]

Covering the radiator with a rag....

Is that over the grill?

Nope, directly ziptied to the radiator... year before last I ziptied a piece of cardboard over half the radiator which worked fine, now I decided to step it up a notch... I went with half the radiator to give it some surface area to cover temperature variances outside and to help in bad traffic...

 

[superj]

Ranger rolled 209k this tank. Still solid and i qould drive it across the country if i had to

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

My dad’s 99 has somewhere well above 200k, pretty sure it’s around 250k on a 4.0 OHV, I was jealous because it ran better than my identical 2000 that had like 168k

 

[superj]

I figure i have an easy 100k left on my little 3.0, at least. I am thinking of draining the trans fluid and relacing though to see if i can smooth out the shift feel a little. Its not hard to shift or anything but just feels like it is not as smooth as it probably once was.

 

[rubydist]

Instead of a piece of cardboard covering half of the radiator, I recommend a piece of cardboard with a hole cut in the center to allow roughly half the radiator to be exposed. That way the airflow and air loading that the fan sees is not out of balance. Not a big deal, but over enough time it can damage the fan or fan clutch or bearing on the water pump. The cardboard with a hole in the center is how we always did it in the frozen tundra of ND where I grew up.

 

[scotts90ranger]

Instead of a piece of cardboard covering half of the radiator, I recommend a piece of cardboard with a hole cut in the center to allow roughly half the radiator to be exposed. That way the airflow and air loading that the fan sees is not out of balance. Not a big deal, but over enough time it can damage the fan or fan clutch or bearing on the water pump. The cardboard with a hole in the center is how we always did it in the frozen tundra of ND where I grew up.

I pondered that but decided against it when I reminded myself that the only "shroud" on a 4 cylinder manual transmission Ranger without A/C is a piece of plastic over the top of the fan saying "Caution Fan! cooling system not designed for air conditioning" or something like that... the fan is like 2" or so from the radiator so the loading shouldn't be much different, plus part of why I used cloth this time around for some flow. But yes, in something with an actual proper fan with shroud I could see the fan loading could be uneven although I'm not too convinced it would be significant...

 

[ekrampitzjr]

Hauled home 11 pallets, torn them apart with a hammer and my hands..always done it this way. Once again used the tailgate as a work bench to cut it it up for fireword.

Is that picture of a Tesla?

 

[sgtsandman]

I figure i have an easy 100k left on my little 3.0, at least. I am thinking of draining the trans fluid and relacing though to see if i can smooth out the shift feel a little. Its not hard to shift or anything but just feels like it is not as smooth as it probably once was.

How often are you changing the fluid? I would recommend 60,000 miles maximum between changes. 30,000 miles being optimal, even with a manual transmission.

If it’s an automatic and you have never changed the fluid, I would recommend a triple drain and fill asap. Drain and fill with a filter change. Drive it for a bit, drain and fill again. Drive it. And do a final drain and fill with a filter.

It sounds like you have a manual though.

The reason there is so many transmission shops out there with a thriving business is because people either do what their manual tells them or they just completely ignore it all together. 30,000/60,000 fluid changes would run most of them out of business.

 

[Blmpkn]

How often are you changing the fluid? I would recommend 60,000 miles maximum between changes. 30,000 miles being optimal, even with a manual transmission.

If it’s an automatic and you have never changed the fluid, I would recommend a triple drain and fill asap. Drain and fill with a filter change. Drive it for a bit, drain and fill again. Drive it. And do a final drain and fill with a filter.

It sounds like you have a manual though.

The reason there is so many transmission shops out there with a thriving business is because people either do what their manual tells them or they just completely ignore it all together. 30,000/60,000 fluid changes would run most of them out of business.

Have you had a UOA done on any trans fluid you've changed? I'm planning on doing mine at 60k and then sending it to Blackstone. Although.. with all the hauling I've done with the truck perhaps I should do it at 45k.. obviously I wanna keep the fluid in tip-top shape but I don't wanna be wasting a bunch of money either. Only about half of the fluid drains from the 10r80s.. so I was planning on doing the triple drain & fill rigamarole to get it as fresh as possible.

 

[sgtsandman]

Have you had a UOA done on any trans fluid you've changed? I'm planning on doing mine at 60k and then sending it to Blackstone. Although.. with all the hauling I've done with the truck perhaps I should do it at 45k.. obviously I wanna keep the fluid in tip-top shape but I don't wanna be wasting a bunch of money either. Only about half of the fluid drains from the 10r80s.. so I was planning on doing the triple drain & fill rigamarole to get it as fresh as possible.

I’ve never did an analysis done on the 2011.

I have yet to do the transmission on the 2019 and it needs to be done. I wanted to do a change at 30,000 miles but life keeps getting in the way and the girlfriend is running the $h!t out of it. So I need to get it done soon while she is on the mend. So it has about 53,000 miles on it now.

If I think about it, I can get a sample sent into Blackstone. I meant to get a sample of the oil but forgot until it was too late. I’ve been feeling like a one-armed wall paper hanger lately.

 

[Blmpkn]

I’ve never did an analysis done on the 2011.

I have yet to do the transmission on the 2019 and it needs to be done. I wanted to do a change at 30,000 miles but life keeps getting in the way and the girlfriend is running the $h!t out of it. So I need to get it done soon while she is on the mend. So it has about 53,000 miles on it now.

If I think about it, I can get a sample sent into Blackstone. I meant to get a sample of the oil but forgot until it was too late. I’ve been feeling like a one-armed wall paper hanger lately.

Getting some comparative data together would be good I think. It would give those of us with the 10r80 a lot better feeling of what the ideal.. not suggested by ford.. but the actual ideal tranny fluid change interval should be.

Even better would be If you havnt really towed anything substantial. I've got quite a few miles of max capacity operation with my truck, so it would be interesting to see what both fluids were like after the same overall miles.