Thermostat chat, Ranger temp obsession (let's split some hairs)

[Ramcharger90]

I was told by a friend to run a 180-185 in my 5.0 since I'm using an A9L from a foxbody and It would benefit me because something about table values



Im sure its just another rabbit hole....

 

[Dirtman]

Fine I will leave the oem motocraft 195 in...but arent you running a 180 in yours?

No? I've never even changed the thermostat in my ranger.... and I use oem for everything Ive ever owned except my mustang which doesn't use a thermostat.

 

[Eddo Rogue]

Good stuff thanks guys! I never thought about upper vs lower either....

I dont have cooling issues at the moment, but don't want any either in the coming summer. there will be consecutive 100+ degree days soon...I didnt even drive my ranger last summer because the ac was non functional.

High humidity sucks, but 8% is not so fun either when its triple digit temps.


I was running a thick explorer radiator, but switched to the standard thin one, mainly to fit an EFan, but that didnt work out. I kept the thin radiator and put clutch fan setup back in.

My fan is brand new, and clutch is a newish motorcraft unit...shroud is a lil hammered, but intact.

I am running a 195 oem motorcraft thermostat that was $39 bucks! It works, I'll probably leave it in after reading responses.

I always ran a 180 and liked the needle below halfway, but perhaps this not so ideal.

Now the needle stays in the middle, but will creep past halfway when taching or towing. With the AC on, its past halfway the whole time, but just barely.

I think lack of numbers on the gauge is the problem, I am installing an aux temp gauge w/ numbers to see whats going on.

Either way the thing runs like a raped ape, 3500rpm 5th gear WOT for miles on end no problem (speedo making its way back to 0)! I should stop splitting hairs and leave the rabbit to go hoppity hop...

 

[Ramcharger90]

Was that no a question?

 

[Eddo Rogue]

I was told by a friend to run a 180-185 in my 5.0 since I'm using an A9L from a foxbody and I would benefit me because something about table values



Im sure its just another rabbit hole....

I think 5.0's call for a 180, or at least prefer them. My 4.0 OHV calls for a 195 and I am wondering if it prefers the 180, or its just me being temp gauge paranoid....

 

[Eddo Rogue]

No? I've never even changed the thermostat in my ranger.... and I use oem for everything Ive ever owned except my mustang which doesn't use a thermostat.

My bad it was PJ thats runs the 180...Sometimes I get you two handsome devils mixed up.

 

[Ramcharger90]

I think 5.0's call for a 180, or at least prefer them. My 4.0 OHV calls for a 195 and I am wondering if it prefers the 180, or its just me being temp gauge paranoid....

The 1998 mountaineer 5.0 used a 198 according to rockauto. That is what the original engine was from.

 

[Dirtman]

Keep in mind, petroleumjunkies engine is... well... strange...

 

[Eddo Rogue]

That's not exactly the point, unless you are on a track where you can drive hard for hours or tow a load up a hill for many miles or drive in sand for an extended period, it's hard to build a bunch of heat in a car/truck... Most people don't understand why you can't just throw a high performance car engine in a boat as is and expect it to live. In a high performance car, you can't drive WOT for 4 hours straight due to lack of road, corners, and other obvious reasons. In a boat, you bet your rear you can peg it for hours as long as the river is straight enough to not slow down to turn... tuning an engine to not melt for that mess is different than most automotive applications... In the jet boat world things are even more exaggerated since it's not as efficient of a method of propulsion so the top speed is lower compared to the horsepower and weight, but there are other advantages...

I do a fair share of pretty hard driving, but out of necessity, not for fun....Traffic is wild out here...if its not stop and go, its go and go, nobody leaves any space or stays in their lane. Instead of giving you space to merge over, they will speed up. If you try to get in behind them, they will slow down. They will drive slow in the fast lane until you manage a sketchy pass on the right, to which they will then speed up and not let you over. A typical errand run for me entails WOT take offs into a barrage of cars, bang shifting thru the gears to fight my way into a lane, fight to get around the big rigs, get cut off by a pruis, 2nd gear chirp downshifts, bob and weave, and WOT back up to 3rd and 4th, and thank Jesus (again) when I finally reach my destination.

Weekend driving entails packing it full of toys/gear and driving thru mountain and desert roads, then do a fair share of off road, which is mostly high speed desert terrain and lots of steep 4lo hill climbs.

So yea, I wanna give all the tlc and bulletproofing possible to my poor lil abused ranger. Luckily I have a transmission guy in my circle of friends lol.

 

[Eddo Rogue]

The 1998 mountaineer 5.0 used a 198 according to rockauto. That is what the original engine was from.

interesting...maybe the older ones take 180's or its just what most guys run in 5.0's....

But that is another question I have....Why is there some many diff temps when you get into the 190's (192,195,198 etc)?

 

[Eddo Rogue]

yeah, that...

Automotive is easy, you guys should try figuring out marine engine coolant plumbing with inlet thermostats and coolant filled exhaust manifolds... that'll make your brain hurt... If anyone is going to try the argument of boat engines running cooler thermostats that's for a very specific reason, Coast Guard regulations, everything in the engine compartment (if not open to atmosphere) has to be below 200F surface temperature under normal conditions.

As said earlier, the wiggler is for air bleeding, adding a 1/8" hole in the thermostat if they don't have that is just fine too, saves lots of headaches... If your engine is running hot, there's an issue be it airflow or coolant flow or something else mechanical.

My '90 Ranger has had a big Explorer radiator in it for a long time, took a while to warm up but works well when running hard at low speeds, no idea at the actual coolant temperature, it just does its thing, running stock 192F thermostat for a '90 Ranger 2.3L... The '97 Ranger on the other hand runs cold, in the winter I got no heater at freezing and the coolant temperature was like 60C tops (I have my Torque app set in C for whatever reason, I'm used to metric in some temp zones coolant wise for work...). Now that it's warmed up it gets up to 80C which isn't near the 88C that I think 192F is so the thermostat still isn't doing a lot and the radiator has a super easy life even being the 1/2" thick stock jobbie without a shroud just a fan guard on the top if I remember right. Next winter I'm just going to block off most of the radiator so I can hopefully get some heat, I put in a Motorcraft 192 thermostat so that isn't the problem.

I was always fascinated by marine cooling systems, seeing water coming out of the exhaust perplexed me.

 

[8thTon]

You have no idea how I run my Vehicles. What's the point of owning a much modified Lightning if you're not going to use it? What's the point in the modified exhaust, MAC intake and chip on the computer on my Ranger if I'm not going to thrash it like a rented mule? What's the point in the custom exhaust, WeaponR intake and 93 octane tune on my Mustang if I'm not going to beat it like a red-headed step-child? I may be 58 years old, but I still like to drive rather aggressively. Maybe too much so. I don't have a Suzuki B-King for no reason. And YES, I know how to ride it! LMAO!

YOU said the temp gauges run lower with the cooler thermostats, therefore you are not running them hard enough for the thermostat to be fully open - it's just how the mechanism works in that once the thermostat is wide open both are exactly the same.

As @scotts90ranger said, it isn't really possible to run them hard enough to tax the cooling system on public roads, except maybe if you are towing near capacity in the hills. The heat loss on short bursts is nothing compared to sustained output. Did you think you were the only mid-50's guy that knows how to run a vehicle hard? I learned how to heel-toe, double clutch and match revs 30yrs ago, and understand slip angles, the proper line through a curve and late braking. Like a lot of guys here I can run fast if I want to, and the Abarth gets workout quite often, but I also gained a little wisdom along the way and don't want to hurt anyone or piss people off at their homes either. Still, there is no way I could make that engine work up a sweat even at insane speeds on public roads.

The other condition where the thermostat may open fully is at long idle or stop & go traffic where there is not as much air flow.

 

[sgtsandman]

I meant the jiggler and fail safe feature are 2 different things, and prefer my thermostat have both. I do worry, even though I don't have cooling problems lol

Ah ok. I believe all thermostats have a fail safe designed into them to fail in the open position.

I may be wrong in that but it makes sense to me that they would. Otherwise things could go very bad. Better to have the engine not get hot enough and over heat.

One thing to look at that many over look is the radiator cap. Those do fail but generally in a way that they won’t hold pressure and the engine will over heat.

There was a discussion not that long ago about people having a too high of a psi rating on their trucks as well. That can cause issues too. Usually, its an aftermarket cap but there have been some that were the cap that came from the factory.

It might be worth looking at that as well and see if you have the correct one. I can’t tell you which yours should have since they vary from engine to engine. Heck, I would have to look up what my trucks are supposed to have since I don’t have them committed to memory.

 

[sgtsandman]

I’m on my phone at the moment, so can’t check your vehicle stats.

Some ideas that might be worth considering for the towing aspect and peace of mind is an oil cooler system with a thermostat and a transmission cooler if you have an automatic.

Auto transmissions have a factory cooler hooked up to the radiator but for towing might not be adequate.

For the oil, not only does it lubricate the engine but cools it. Heat dissipation through the oil pan sometimes is not enough but like the coolant, you don’t want to cool it off too much. Make sure the system has a thermostat so it can run the oil through the auxiliary cooler when needed but shuts it off when it isn’t needed.

 

[sheep herder]

Ah ok. I believe all thermostats have a fail safe designed into them to fail in the open position.

They may be designed that way but it the real world, it doesn't always work that way. I've had a couple stick closed over the years.