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Ranger 2.3L not warming up

I have never seen this before. My '90 ranger 2.3L takes forever to get warm enough to blow heat. I generally have to drive about 4 miles before the air gets warm. All of my other cars are getting warm in the first mile. Anyway, once it is warm, the temp gauge never makes it to the middle, it just barely comes off the peg. I figured, no problem, the t-stat is stuck open so I changed it out. No difference. Then I thought it must be that the heater core is cooling the engine so I blocked it off to see if that would get the engine up to temp. No luck. Has anyone ever seen anything like this. What did you do to cure it?

Reply to
t_puls
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Check to see if the engine is actually heating up. If the rad hose is hot but the heater is still blowing cold you could have a blocked heater core.

If it is a plugged heater core you should be able to improve it by freeing up the circulation through it. You might not want to flush the cooling system too aggressively, i.e. with corrosive cleaners, with an older system. You could try disconnecting the heater core at the firewall and directing a water hose in both directions to try to flush the crud out of the heater core. I have done this a few times and it helps considerably and it is free.

Stephen --> Had lots of beaters...

t_puls wrote:

Reply to
Stephen

I found that in my 94 I never got any real heat either. The good news was that in the summer, I never over heated either.

Reply to
Reece Talley

Reply to
Anonymous

I had the same problem with my 94 aerostart (3.0) and my 89 F150 (5.0) After checking everthing else I decided to pull the waterpump. I found it was rusted away. The empeller(sp) part. It didn't leak, overheat nothing. It just didn;t get warm or hot. Now I have great heat.

Roger

Reply to
Roger

The t-stat on this engine only fits in one way. It is a 195deg. F. t-stat which is the correct temperature for the year. Believe me, that much I checked out for sure. I also realize that you have to install the thermostat so the heater port is not blocked by the t-stat itself. All of that stuff is correct, that is why I am stumped. I thought about the fan clutch as you noted but I would think that the t-stat would still keep the engine temp regulated and that the stuck fan would just keep the water in the radiator cold. Is my thinking wrong there. Maybe I should take the fan off and take it for a short spin to see if that makes it warm up.

Tim

Reply to
t_puls

Turned out to be a defective gauge in the dash. This car does come up to temperature, it is just a little slower than my other cars. Thanks for all of your help.

Reply to
t_puls

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