water temp

[puty72]

I had put a 3 gauge pod in my truck back in the summer and had a friend install it. To get the water gauge to work he disconnected the orginal sending unit for the factory gauge and hooked the new one up where the orignal one was. Now in the winter it takes forever for my truck's heater to work. I was wondering if this problem is related to disconnecting the factory gauge.

 

[Doofy]

No relationship between the gauge and the heater getting hot. Most likely, a missing thermostat or that the thermostat is stuck open.

 

[IMenriched]

I had put a 3 gauge pod in my truck back in the summer and had a friend install it. To get the water gauge to work he disconnected the orginal sending unit for the factory gauge and hooked the new one up where the orignal one was. Now in the winter it takes forever for my truck's heater to work. I was wondering if this problem is related to disconnecting the factory gauge.

Agreed with Doofy...the guage installation shouldn't affect the engine temp.

Depending on how cold it is where you are plays into it too. As well As, how far you're driving before your shutting down. for example, if the air temp is -10* F and you're driving <10 miles there is high probabilty it won't reach operating temp nor get very warm inside.

yes the thermostat could be getting weak or stuck...take your pick.
check that 1st.

the water pump could not be moving coolant as well too. Not as likely but should be checked.

the heater core could be getting plugged with sediment from the cooling system and or is nearing failure. check the heater hoses going to the fire wall after it is been running awhile....with heater going full blast...if one hose feel very warm and the other very much cooler....then you're having a circulation issue...now this could be from a water pump not moving water very well... or...a plugged up heater core.
If water pump is not moving coollant or doing it poorly, generally you'll see the engine up to operating temp or just a tad on the warm side but lacking heat inside.

generally if the heater core is plugged up to the point of lack of heat...it is about to spring leaks & you'll get a sweet funny smell inside the cab as you thermostat opens and maybe a haze over the inside of the windshield... and replacement is the best solution.

when was the last time you flushed you coolant system??
if you feel the heater core is solid...remove the heater hoses and flush that as well moving water both ways thru the core.

Now there MIGHT be a vacuum diaphram that control a heater damper door.
or a control cable to a pin (like a throttle cable on push mower) that might be broken not letting you adjust the the amount of heat you desire...just depends on your vintage of ranger??? so you might want to make sure that your climate controls are functioning

 

[IRKillroy]

yeah, my truck is doing that too, though it has a new thermostat from three years ago... my truck hasn't see a lot of use so I think it's the coolant.... I plan to have it flushed in the near future to see if that it....

 

[Southern_Trendkill]

Doesn't the coolant temp sensor feed into the computer? I was going to swap mine out for a mechanical guage but I thought it would make it run rich.

 

[IRKillroy]

yeah... look at the schematic.. I think it just goes through a shunt in there and heads to the dash... when it gets too hot a light comes on....

 

[holyford86]

the temp sensors for the gauge and the computer are different, the one that's a bitch to get to is for the comp, the other one with one wire coming out of it is the gauge sender. Having no heat has nothing to do with adding an aftermarket gauge. Either your coolant is extremely low (very bad on a 2.9) or the thermostat is either stuck open or of too low of a rating.

 

[IRKillroy]

having an air bubble in the system isn't good.... take the top hose off and fill it up and when it's full almost to the top, quickly put it on the radiator... unless you have one of those hose turnikits.... clamps down on the hose so it won't leak....

but with that, before you release it, you need to fill the radiator so both sides have fluid otherwise the air will go back to where you were trying to get rid of it.


you should also check the temp with some other guage.... your guage sensor could be bad...