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?
The t-stat on this engine only fits in the housing 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 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. Any other thoughts?
If it were mine, I would remove the thermostat and check it's operation in boiling water. Does it close when removed from the water, etc. Is it a Stant?
It is a Stant. Is that good or bad? I have never had a problem with them before. I will check the old one that I took out since it was giving the same results.
If it were mine, I would remove the thermostat and check it's operation in boiling water. Does it close when removed from the water, etc. Is it a Stant?
Stant is a good brand. It's been my experience with cheapo brands that sometimes I have to go through 2 or 3 before finding one that works like it is supposed to.
Some engines have a small amount of bypass flow even with the thermostat completely closed. Maybe yours is one of those. You need to examine the pipe runs and maybe even the drillings inside the head near or inside the thermostat housing. In recent years as emissions and fuel consumption are scrutinised ever more closely the manufacturers are doing more to ensure rapid warm up, especially in cold weather. Most of my cars over the last 20 years have taken a few miles to get hot but the latest, a Ford Focus, is right into the middle of the gauge within a mile or less and giving warm air from the heater. That's been the case in near freezing temps too. I imagine that when the weather warms up it'll be up to temp almost instantaneously.
If the thermostat is operating correctly then maybe the gauge is just reading low. You really need an independent measure of the water temp to determine that. With the heater blocked off you won't be able to tell from the air getting hot because it won't of course. I've had cars where the radiator itself needed to be blanked off in cold weather because the engine ran cold even with the stat closed. There was just too much heat dissipation from the block and rad even with little or no water flow. That tends to affect small low powered engines more than large ones of course.
Finally, the heater core itself might be so sludged or limescaled up that it isn't getting hot for ages because there's little flow through it or there's good thermal insulation from the limescale. The engine itself might be up to temp and just reading low on the gauge (or the sensor is faulty). I'd therefore conclude, especially given the age of the vehicle that you have those two separate problems (heater core and gauge/sensor) as well as perhaps a small bypass flow situation.
If you think about it logically, if the heater core is good, the stat is good and there's no bypass flow then you should get hot air from the heater in very short order.
Dave Baker - Puma Race Engines
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