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My truck isn't a daily driver so i don't get to run her around a lot, but i changed the oil today, no milk came out! sweet! so no headgasket leak, that i know of.
Had to drive it a little bit, probably 20 miles total, long enough to get it warmed up, and it always runs 3/4 of the way to hot. i know the stock guages suck, but in the engine bay it's rediculously hot.
I grabbed hold of the top radiator hose, and it was scalding hot.
Grabbed the bottom one, and it was cool, like nothing was going through it.
Bad thermostat? not letting any coolant bye??
Coolant is not flowing for some reason. Thermostat, radiator or even water pump could cause it. A new Motorcraft thermostat would be a good place to start.
I doubt its the water pump, I have seen the fins rust away a couple times, just leaving a knarled up shaft spinning but that is really rare. I'd say its either the t'stat or the rad.
no heat would mean water pump, HOT heat (hotter than normal) would mean bad radiator. If the top tank is getting hot its doubtful its the t-stat, but i may not be opening all the way, slim possibility.
yeah my heat works good. the top of the raditor is hot as hell. like, can't hold your hand on it. but that would also make me think that the t-stat isn't letting all that hot coolant by so it just sits there and heats and heats.
make any sense?
I would get a temp gun and check it if your worried, with the s-tast working right the coolant coming out is 195f thats would be hard for most people to hold there hands on.
cheap t stats will stick, this happened to the 6.9 in the red cross Ecv i drive on tuesdays, put only motorcraft Tstat in her, temp gauge needle should b on the O or R of normal on the gauge.
If you don't find the problem, you'll have to do down the process of elimination.
Start from the cheapest thing, and work your way to the most expensive.
Start with the thermostat.
And speedwrench, these gauges are all calibrated differently. All my Ford trucks, not one of their temp gauges sits at the same spot, and they all run the same temp on the real gauges.
I'm thinkin about just gettin me a 3 pod a pillar already. get a real temp guage and save the others for boost annnnd. hmm, pyro.
Motorcraft thermostat ordered, even if it's normal temp. probably an ancient thermostat in there haha