91 high temp

Nov 19, 2003 3 Replies

Hi there -



My '91 has developed a nasty heating up problem.



When i accelerate, the temp guage goes from the "o" in normal way up sometimes to the "l" or higher. When you coast it drops back down again. At a stop light to goes right back to the the "o". Hit the gas and within a minute - it shoots right back up again. It also does this in park, if you rev the engine up to 2800 and hold it there.



I changed the thermostat tonight and had no improvement. Last summer I replaced the radiator, fan clutch and water pump - mainly due the the age of the items. Two years ago, the temperature sender died and we replaced it. We have not used the truck very much in the last year, if that makes a difference. We finally replaced the u-joints in the rear drive shaft to get rid of the nasty 35 - 45 virbrations. We now have 186,000 miles.



What kind of ideas are out there?



Thanks in advance,



Randy


We had a similar problem on 93 Explorer. Took a few months to figure it out. Turned out to be a pinhole leak in the heater core that was allowing air to get into the cooling system. I had the same fluctuations on the temp gauge that you described. I think I posted it here as a question but did not get any answers.

Anyhow, replacement of the heater core fixed the problem.

Hope this helps,

Tom

Didn't you get the smell of coolant that would normally go with such a leak?

Hi there -

I have able to remove the problem by drilling two small holes in the thermostat. It does take longer to warm up, but it now behaves like it is supposed to.

Randy

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