1985 Ranger 2.8V6 coolent issues......

[pony4896]

I am new to the Ranger forum.
Came over here after selling my 92 Exploder 4.0, (FordExplorerForum), and made a worse mistake getting an 85 Ranger with the strange smog ridden german 2.8 engine in it. This thing is an octopus with all them cracked/missing PLASTIC vaccume lines running all over... Not to mention the strange smog crap!!!
I had no idea that parts for this engine would be so difficult to find. Guess they didnt make it enough years to realy build up a customer base for used parts?
Anyway's, I just got the truck two days ago. When i got it everything worked! Just $500 bucks too....
Went to the store, got out, noticed a coolent leak under truck. Went to parts store got heater core hose's to replace the ones that were leaking.
Replaced the hoses, decided to buy the (Prestone Coolent Flush kit) to flush out the system before i added the new coolent back in.
Hooked up the tee joint in between the heater core inlet hose,
stuck my house hose into the thing (as per Prestone instr) removed the drain plug from bottom of radiator (which is new radiator by the way), removed the radiator cap, inserted the yellow flush tube into the radiator fill hole,
turned on the house hose water, started the engine, turned on the heater on high full blast, let it run for about ten minutes, shut off the engine, turned off the house water hose, disconected the house hose from the new tee in the heater core hose that i installed, waited untill the water all drained out from the radiator drain plug, reinstalled the radiator drain plug, then proceded as per the Prestone instructions to leave off the black cap on the installed tee fitting on the heater core hose and begin filling the radiator with 50/50 mixture antifreeze untill the water comming out of the installed tee runs out green (antifreeze green) then quickly reinstall black cap to installed tee, close the radiator fill cap, start engine and run for ten minutes with heater on full blast.
Did all this only i noticed after feeling the hoses, (both heater core hoses, upper radiator hose were HOT) but the lower radiator hose was COLD...
I dont mean luke-warm, i mean outside temperture cold, as in it was 40degrees outside COLD..
My heater is working perfect, blows nice and hot-toasty.
Problem is now my temp gauge is registering hotter than normal and this has got me a little bit concerned. Now, i have heard that the bottom radiator hose "should" feel less warm than the upper, but that is usualy the case only because in most engines the thermostat is located on the top part of engine near to the upper radiator hose. Ford 2.8 V6 put the thermostat in the bottom of engine near bottom radiator hose. So, why is the bottom radiator hose so COLD?
After i did the coolent flush did i miss a step?
I did notice that Prestone's procedure for the coolent change and flush was alot different than the sticker on my trucks engine bay says...
"WARNING" "SPECIAL COOLENT PROCEDURE FOR 2.8 V6 ENGINE".....
The sticker would have me drain the coolent by way of removing the lower radiator hose and letting the coolent escape from there, then have me replace the lower radiator hose after the coolent is removed, then in order to add new coolent (per the sticker on truck) one must remover the UPPER radiator hose, tilt it upwards, poor exactly 2.8 liters of coolent into it untill coolent escapes out the open end, then reattatch the upper radiator hose and fill the radiator with the rest of the coolent required.
Well it wouldnt suprise me one bit if this picky little german, smog ridden, engine needed the coolent done special!
So i guess im going drain all the fluid back out of it and start over from scratch doing it the 2.8 way....
Ive used the Prestone coolent flush on many of my Ford vehicles in the past, and never had any issues with following the Prestone flush and fill directions.... Hate this engine, its got me all kinds of pissed off tracking down all its stumbles, burning rich, broken vac lines made of plastic, so much smog crap on it that i cant even get an after market carb to put on there without modifieing everything, and to make matters worse the carb that is on there (MotorCraft E57EBA 2brl) is not even made anymore so it cannot be replaced..
Lol, sorry about my rant... I need to vent...
For the moment this is my only transportation so i am a little on edge about the finiky nature of this engine...
Love Fords.... I have owned 1968 Mustang Fastback with GT500 Shelby body kit (302), 1969 Mustang fastback (351w), 1967 Galaxie500 (390fe), two Ford trucks with the (BB460), 1992 Ford Explorer (4.0FI OHV), 1969 Dodge Cornet RT (383), 1994 Dodge Caravan (3.3), 1982 Firebird (305), Two 1995 Chevy suburbans (350).... AND IVE HAD TO WORK ON ALL OF THEM..... BUTTTTT
Never have i been this pissed at an engine!!
This damn thing just dont make any since at all....

 

[freerider6_9]

You either have an air bubble, or your thermostats sticking closed, when its warm, loosen the rad cap while pushing down with a rag so you dont burn yourself, if its straight coolant right away, theres no air in your rad, if you get some air then coolant id bet your problems solved. also try loosening that coolant tee cap doing the same.

They may not make your carb anymore but they dont need to. You can get rebuild kits and save a pile of money.

You can eliminate all that emmisions junk if you live somewhere without testing.

Welcome to the board.

 

[dangerranger83]

First off, if your state doesn't do emissions testing, do the duraspark setup to it so that yo may get rid of all the emissions stuff. More information about that is in the tech. library.

What I did when I filled my engine up was filled the block up with coolant, of course the lower hose being attatched and filled up to the top and then attached the top hose and filled up the radiator started her up and got all the air out of the system.

I know ford made this engine terrible from the factory but they did what they had to do but I would take it over the 2.9 or 3.0 anyday. Takes some help to make it better, hope we can help out here.

 

[pony4896]

First off, Thank you dangerranger83, and freerider6_9 for welcoming me to the site. And for putting up with my ranting... lol...
Im going to drain the system out tomorrow and refill coolent per the way the sticker on my truck says to.
And yea I understand what you mean (dangerranger83), Ford needed to compete with Japan. All those affordable mini trucks they were sending over here that got excellent gas milage and what-not.... Thanks again guys.

 

[The_Dealer]

do u have the upper t-stat or lower? on the upper loosen the top heater hose on the water pump and let the air out. how did the old coolant look was it nasty? more then likely your t-stat got gummed up, take it out and drop it in a pot of boiling water and see if it opens, if it doesnt the t-stat is bad

also might wanna duraspark it, my rig was missing all kinda shit on the emissions and i never could get it to run right

 

[pony4896]

Im not absolutly positive on which hose the thermostat is located as i havent yet tore into either of the radiator hoses (upper, or lower) as all i did was change out the heater core hoses so far.
The coolent didnt look to bad at all. Noticed allot of cloudy water and some minor rusty color mixxed with alot of green coolent.
The previous owner had put a new radiator on it, but for whatever reason choose not to change any of the hoses... Strange because they were all cracked, buldging, and mushy feeling,,,not to mention leaking.
He said that the old radiator had some pin holes, so he got a new one for it.
IDK... Im going to work on the German cologne engine now...LoL, wish me luck.. Seems like everytime i replace one thing, another problem pops up out of no were? Mo-Money Mo-Money

 

[kimcrwbr1]

Being a 85 if you have the two piece thermostat housing on the intake manifold going to the upper radiator hose your in luck that is where the t-stat is. If not it is in the lower housing and kinna a biotch to change. Be sure to get both gaskets and o-ring with the stat you have the bypass hose on the back of the waterpump housing that will most likely leak if you dont replace the gasket also. I will get you the part numbers for the proper gaskets and t-stat. If your running the computer you will need the 195 degree stat for it to run proper. Another thing is the guage always reads on the upper end of hot or norm on the guage that is just the nature of the beast if your not over heating your probably alright if you see coolant circulating thru the fill hole when up to temp I wouldn`t mess with it.

 

[kimcrwbr1]

Autozone for lower stat housing and bypass gasket

35305 gasket
35304 gasket
35094 o-ring
15379 t-stat

 

[pony4896]

kimcrwbr1~
I dont know what you mean by, "if you see coolent circulating thru the fill hole"?
I fill the coolent thru the radiator cap opening.
And i just ordered the upper and lower radiator hose's from AutoZone and they only gave me one gasket and its for the lower radiator hose water outlet ( ROL Gaskets-WO8300-001. FP-35304)-(vict: C26195) are the designation numbers on the gasket package, then on the lower right hand corner of the gasket it say another number~ (-B30090).. Found out that my 1985 Ranger was built in 11/84. They looked this up and this is the gasket they said would work for my application.
Also i just changed the oil and im not seeing a fill cap to put the new oil into. All i see is a breather with a hose sticking out of it that goes into the airbreather??? Is this were i poor the oil into?? Is it 5 quarts? Thanks..

 

[dangerranger83]

Ya, the breather cap is the oil fill location. The manual from when I last read it said 5 quarts and thats what I put in mine. That reminds me, mine may need changed soon. I wll say, for an engine that can do 300,000+ miles on just rutine mantinence, Im not going to complain.

EDIT: I would also clean out the breather cap with carb cleaner or replace it.

 

[The_Dealer]

Being a 85 if you have the two piece thermostat housing on the intake manifold going to the upper radiator hose your in luck that is where the t-stat is. If not it is in the lower housing and kinna a biotch to change. Be sure to get both gaskets and o-ring with the stat you have the bypass hose on the back of the waterpump housing that will most likely leak if you dont replace the gasket also. I will get you the part numbers for the proper gaskets and t-stat. If your running the computer you will need the 195 degree stat for it to run proper. Another thing is the guage always reads on the upper end of hot or norm on the guage that is just the nature of the beast if your not over heating your probably alright if you see coolant circulating thru the fill hole when up to temp I wouldn`t mess with it.

you are right. my temp guage never worked and i got my sending unit to fix it and was freakin out thinking it was over heating. so i took everyones advice and got a mech temp guage and it was never overheating. stayed at 190 right where it should be

 

[kimcrwbr1]

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/pa...dkd?counter=1&itemIdentifier=225087_147510_0_

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/pa...pdkd?counter=2&itemIdentifier=68356_147509_0_

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/pa...?counter=3&itemIdentifier=68326_188054_11542_

these are autozone part numbers the bypass housing is a funny looking gasket the three bolts thread into the housing and they sandwich the water pump housing.

 

[enginepaul]

Don't worry too much. Fill it, drive it a bit and top it - that's all you need. Even the Ford manuals say the procedure is so you get the vehicle on the road and don't have to worry about the customer checking coolant level.

The water temperature difference is because the water isn't circulating = that means thermostat or water pump.

 

[Eric Kropp]

I have and '83 and had an '85. On my '83 the stat was on the bottom where the small hose leads up to the side of the intake manifold. The '85 has the small hose going up above the intake manifold to the top radiator out/in let on the manifold and ties into the housing that the stat is located in....much better. I changed the intake manifold on my 83 to the later high stat location. The bottom line is, if the hose going up the drivers side of the engine ties into the side of the actual intake manifold, the stat is down at the bottom or at least it was originally. If that hose that goes up the drivers side of the engine ties on to the upper housing where the top rad. hose is, your stat is high mounted. I have all the smog stuff on mine and it all works and I almost think I understand how it works now.....after owning the pick-up 20 years!

Eric<><

 

[pony4896]

I have and '83 and had an '85. On my '83 the stat was on the bottom where the small hose leads up to the side of the intake manifold. The '85 has the small hose going up above the intake manifold to the top radiator out/in let on the manifold and ties into the housing that the stat is located in....much better. I changed the intake manifold on my 83 to the later high stat location. The bottom line is, if the hose going up the drivers side of the engine ties into the side of the actual intake manifold, the stat is down at the bottom or at least it was originally. If that hose that goes up the drivers side of the engine ties on to the upper housing where the top rad. hose is, your stat is high mounted. I have all the smog stuff on mine and it all works and I almost think I understand how it works now.....after owning the pick-up 20 years!

Eric<><

Eric~
Oh boy do i have some questions for you.lol...
Yellow,green,orange,red,black,ect... All vacuume lines... Only three of mine are hooked up!
The thicker black colored one of mine is hooked up, the green one is hooked up and running from my EGR to those two rows of weird sylnoide that are mounted to the passenger side inner fenderwell. What are those things?
I have a red vac line, "within that group of cracked lines" that is still pulling vaccume from the rear (behind intake) main vacuume tree, but it is not hooked anywhere?
I ended up just hooking it up to the cracked orange vaccume line that goes to one of the weird sylnoide things??
Im at a lose with those things.
How are yours hooked up man???
Please, DO TELL! LoL......
Thanks, Jason.