Help! 2003 2.3 Ranger Overheating

[usmc2003ranger]

I have read through all of the forums to see if they would be of help, nope.
So my ranger has been overheating. I have replaced the water pump, thermostat housing, t-fitting, coolant temperature sensor, cylinder head temperature sensor, and I did a coolant flush.
The coolant flush that I did was with the flush chemical where you run it for a few days and let it do its work to get everything out. I just let it drain from the lower drain plug. I changed it out about 6 times until it came out completely clear, I then put in green coolant. Still overheating.
The reservoir is filling up and will overflow after driving it for about 30 minutes, and it doesn't look like it's pumping water very hard. If I pull the upper small reservoir hose off and blow into it, everything comes out from the radiator, so I do not think that the radiator has a clog.
Could it be possible that the engine block as a clog? Would that be causing the reservoir to overflow?
Im losing my mind over this and spending way too much time on it.

 

[Soledad]

You may also want to replace the degas bottle cap. Those are well known to get weak and cause the system to puke. If you also replace the degas cap and it still pukes then it's most likely time to do a cooling system pressure check. Any small leak or area that would let air in will cause the boiling point of the coolant to lower and boil over.

If a cooling system pressure check turns out good then you'll need to do a compression check and possible a cylinder leak-down test. It may be that the you have a blown head gasket but those aren't very common on this 2.3 Duratecs.

Also, the 2003 2.3L Duratec engines use Gold coolant not the green coolant. See this doc: https://www.fcsdchemicalsandlubricants.com/main/quickref/coolantsEN.pdf

The original owner of my 2003 2.3L was using green coolant and didn't keep up on cooling system maintenance. The steel tube that connects to the top radiator hose and heater core was full of rust. It was pretty bad. I had to replace it (P/N RH91).

It is possible that the block or head has a blockage. You'd need to drain the system yet again, pull the radiator hoses off and pull the thermostat off the block. Then run a hose at full blast through the steel tube and see what kind of volume you get out of the thermostat area. If that's good then run the hose full blast through the radiator and see what flow volume you have there. You'll also need to run it through the heater core as well. Even a tiny hole in the heater core would cause the degas to puke.

I went through something very similar very recently. I ended up replacing the radiator, both radiator hoses, degas bottle and cap, water pump, thermostat, the "Tee" above the starter, the steel tube that connects to the top radiator hose and the Cylinder Head Temp sensor. However mine was not puking, but just running hotter than what I figured was normal. I have a couple of posts on the other Ford Ranger forums about my problem.

Sorry I'm all over the place with this but I'm just kind of tossing thoughts out as they come to me.

But first, get that degas bottle cap replaced with a Motorcraft unit. Then perform the Ford burping procedure (see below). If after that it continues to puke then I'd do a cooling system pressure test. If that fails then do a compression test and a leak-down test.


Burping procedure:

1. Fill the system through the degas bottle cap to the max fill level.
1a. Put the truck up on ramps or an incline so the engine is higher than the rear of the truck.
2. Run the engine for approximately ten seconds at 2,500 rpm to prime the heater circuit then turn the engine off.
3. Top off the coolant level to 0.6 inch above the max fill level.
4. Install the degas bottle cap.
5. Start the engine and hold at 2,500 rpm engine speed for approximately eight minutes until the thermostat opens.
6. Maintain 2,500 rpm engine speed for an additional three minutes.
7. Increase engine speed to 4,000 rpm and hold for five seconds.
8. Return engine speed to 2,500 rpm and hold for an additional three minutes.
9. Repeat the previous two steps.
10. Stop the engine and check for leaks.
11. Verify correct fluid level after engine cools for 20 minutes. Top off the degas bottle to "max" line (although I run my level half way between min and max).

 

[RonD]

Do the Glove Test found in post #3: http://www.therangerstation.com/forums/showthread.php?t=167249

You have described classic symptoms of head gasket leak or cracked head.
Free test to take it off the table or if a leak is found you won't waste more money on things that won't fix it.