2.3 overheat on hwy

[bobdog301]

before i tear into this again hopefully someone has had this happen before, my 2.3 overheats but only on the highway, around town it runs warm(for a ranger) about 1/4 but on the highway it will run up to the 3/4 mark and bubble out the holding tank , have replaced the thermo, but no good, it will do it in 45 degree weather and really do it once it hits 75 degrees i can not notice much temp change between top hose and bottom ,and sometimes i get no heat,even with fluid in rad, if someone has had this happen to them can you please ,please , give me some ideas ,i hate to replace water pump and rad, if i only need one or the other, thanks guys...and remember......we'all counting on you !

 

[87ranger2.0]

did you check your belt for the water pump? It could be slipping at higher rpm's?idk what yr your truck is.does your fan kick in fully when it's hot?

 

[bobdog301]

come to think bout it i dont hear the loud fan sound, but it always ran cool before so i dont know if it ever made the sound, as for the belt i installed a new one in the fall but i will take a look thanks ,

 

[bobdog301]

could the fan clutch do it, it now seems to overheat around town too, please dont say the H word this is the 2nd motor in 2 yrs

 

[wizkid00104]

Any chance your thermostat is stuck shut?

 

[Rogue_Wulff]

Honestly, a fan clutch issue is more likely to cause overheating at slow speed, and running cool on the highway. Above 35 MPH or so, the fan isn't needed, the simple act of the vehicle moving will force air thru the radiator.
I'm betting you have a thermostat or radiator issue. Could be a water pump, but sounds more like T-stat or rad to me.

 

[bobdog301]

thanks guys tearing into it today will let you know what i find

 

[tomw]

As an old XXXX[person], I can say the general rule is:
If it overheats at idle, it's the pump
If it overheats going down the highway, it's the radiator.
I would look inside the radiator, and look at where the tubes come into the tank. If there is 'stuff' growing on the ends of the tubes, there is 'stuff' growing inside the tubes also. It is a chemical process that is inexorable, and cannot be removed by any of the commercial flushing products available that I know of. Either replace or re-core, depending on local prices, are the only solutions that will protect your engine from overheating.
tom

 

[Bryan22]

I'm with tom, i'd suspect the radiator. What's the fluid look like? try giving it a good flush and see what happens.

 

[flaminranger]

try removeing the t stat and see if it helps if it does you know the problem and it only cost ya the price of a new gasket if it still does it I say radiator.

 

[bobdog301]

thanks for weighing in everyone, tore it appart today n found alot of rusty stop leak like crap at the bottom of rad, also replaced t-stat to 180 runs cool at low speeds and climbs to about 1/2 way after 45 min on highway, still to hot for a ranger i think, it never came off 1/4 before this , so it looks like a new rad for me, still getting over sticker shock for new $500-600 wow,does anyone know of a better place to go, tried A.Z. and pepboys

anyway thanks guys ill keep posting

 

[Rogue_Wulff]

rockauto.com

Without looking, I'd bet it would be ~$100 shipping and all.....

 

[scotts90ranger]

get a stock replacement 192" stat to put in when you get a better radiator in there, you'll get better gas mileage... it was designed to run at that temperature, most likely won't go into closed loop until it gets to a higher temperature than the stat you put in will allow.

that said, I don't know if you can drop an explorer radiator in a '95 as I did in my '90, it required reworking the top hose with a copper 45* fitting in the middle and using a '86 T bird turbocoupe lower hose, but now I have a super thick radiator that I only paid $35 for at the junkyard... the first one I had was apparently plugged as it overheated at low speed high load but it also had a cracked side tank, the new one works great.

 

[scotts90ranger]

There's an older picture of my engine, but you can see the modified upper hose, over 2 years and still doing fine with that simple mod, I think it's even the factory upper hose.

 

[modelageek]

thanks for weighing in everyone, tore it appart today n found alot of rusty stop leak like crap at the bottom of rad, also replaced t-stat to 180 runs cool at low speeds and climbs to about 1/2 way after 45 min on highway, still to hot for a ranger i think, it never came off 1/4 before this , so it looks like a new rad for me, still getting over sticker shock for new $500-600 wow,does anyone know of a better place to go, tried A.Z. and pepboys

anyway thanks guys ill keep posting

a few thoughts

1)Rockauto has it for $100 shipped using the 5% promotion
2)you can order online from Advance and pick up at the store.....you ususlly save about 30% using the promotion code
3) I would switch back to a Motorcraft 190/192 tstat.... I am not positive but I think your heat setup is the same as mine.......the heater core is always getting coolant directly from the engine no matter what the tstat is doing......thus when you have the 180 tstat the heat will not work great in the winter.......the heat in these trucks is not great anyways and that is because these engine runs very cool naturally...........please only buy the Motorcraft tstat is designed to help bleed a system that is difficult to bleed in the first place