I'm new to forum, Fords, and mechanical work, but determined to make this truck run as she should. I've done all the prevention maintenance items, the newbie stuff, or rather the stuff that'll keep me from having to buy a new engine from doing something I shouldn't. New distributor cap, rotor button, plugs, motorcraft gapped to. 052/056 if I remember right, new pcv valve, new wix air filter, and last week I flushed the antifreeze and put in new 50/50. There's some things I want to do but haven't quite gotten up my courage, the egr valve removal and cleaning is a big one that scares me because the big nut isn't looking like it wants to break free. The tps sensor needs cleaning and a few other odds and ends. I got in the truck today and got about two miles up the road and the temp gauge shot up with the ac on, so I cut it off and it got back to normal. I went to advance and got a 195degree stant and fear once again sets in. I'm worried about breaking the lower bolt off, but gonna hit it with pb blaster and give it a try. I've noticed that ever since I've had the truck there's been a few drops of antifreeze on the water pump/timing chain cover, not a lot but enough to smell it. Wen the truck got hot, not overheated but hot, I popped hood and the top hose was hard as a rock, like it was gonna burst, so is that the thermostat not opening? The truck runs perfect some days but has a sputter on others, fresh oil, antifreeze, new brake rotors and bearings, pads, it's like i'm having to rebuild it one piece at a time, which is fine but I'm hoping it'll soon be over with and I can just drive it.. I'm gonna try to get thermostat housing off and change the thermostat tonight, but from what I've described, is anything I've said ringing any bells with someone who's had these same problems? Maybe it's not the thermostat and could be the radiator? I don't notice any circulation of the antifreeze while truck is cool and running in radiator, the fan constantly turns too. Maybe air in the system? It's weird for it to run hot with air on, when I turned on my defroster in winter the condenser condensated, now keep in mind I don't know much but what little I do know I've learned here, it's a great forum but there's way too many versions of these trucks because I almost find my problem and learn it's a 4.9 or 5.8 or i6. My truck is a 95 F150 xl 302 with what I think is the towing package from factory, the 47r0w transmission as well, it's changing gears late and have to let off the gas to get it to go into overdrive, but until I change fluid I'm gonna set that aside because it getting hot is my main concern now.. That's a lot of info, I know, but I want to get this truck back running good, I cut the huge muffler off and replaced it but left both cats on, I hear mixed reviews on removing cats so I left them, but the things I can't live with is getting hot and seems like it's not running as good as it should be, the only things I haven't changed is water pump, ignition coil and the sensors, so any help is appreciated and good info here..

 

When I drained coolant it puddles up below thermostat, when I wiped it off the gasket up against engine came off with the rag, like the coolant melted it, I'm assuming this is the timing chain cover? Guess it'll start leaking now, should I change this now that I'm doing it and a water pump too or just crank it up and go ahead? I am running into one thing after another, I've never seen a gasket melt from coolant before.

 

Old gaskets deteriorate, pretty normal.

 

You said you changed the coolant, was it overheating before you changed the coolant? If not, I'd bet you still had air in the system, Yes the top hose gets hard, I doubt you had a bad T-stat. If you've had some leaking around the water pump area, it may be coming out of the weep hole, if it is, then sooner or later you'll need a new water pump, may as well do it now, than have it go out in the middle of winter.

 

One thing to keep in mind with the 302 engine is that there are two coolant passages that go *through* the timing cover. That could be the source of a leak/loss of pressure. The gaskets that isolate those passages went out on my truck and ended up with what looked like a bad t-stat gasket, water pump or intake gasket. Ended up replacing the timing cover altogether, new timing chain/sprockets, new pump on top of it, and everything got new gaskets. Not a drop of coolant for six months now.

And like others are saying, you probably have to bleed air out of the system. Run your truck until it's warm, then park it on an incline of some kind with the nose up and open the radiator cap *very* slightly. Once you have air hissing out, close it immediately to prevent coolant loss. Rinse, repeat this procedure a few times until your temp gauge stops fluctuating. Good luck.

 

Thanks, I'll give it a try. On a side note, a good cleaning of my egr valve really seemed to of give me some huge benefits, it's idling like a new one and almost zero sputtering or miss, and it may not be possible that it's related to how the transmission shifts, but I swear it doesn't seem like it revs as high now before it shifts, but I still can feel a slight hesitation, like something is holding her back from peeling the tires back and lifting the front tires.. Lol. That may be over doing it but next is taking off throttle body and getting to the iac valve, then a new water pump and possibly electric fan conversion, then I gotta slow down awhile, this stuff isn't cheap..

 

It got hot in a weird way, not normal. Idling was fine, ac wide open driving 50mph was the only time the temp rose, the new thermostat has completely solved all of this, I'm confused myself. I gave it the incline burp and it's actually running lower than ever, but theres still a very small leak, and I don't like any kind of coolant leak, so I just got new hoses, motorcraft water pump and all new gaskets. I'm gonna research the best electric fan conversion and do it all at one time, the grill is out for new paint and gonna order new lights, somehow getting condensation in them and those old bulbs are dim and yellow looking, may go with led or hid but don't wanna get too far away from the factory look, 42 years old has a way of appreciation for keeping it toned down. The rear end jacked up 8" above the front is driving me crazy, but shackles I hear don't help much, and I don't want to get so involved I'm ordering $500 lowering kits and adjusting drive shaft or whatever. I really hate how high it looks tho so I gotta research some more.

 

If your stock fan shroud is still in one piece keep it. Going electric is more hassle than what it's worth. The stock fan and shroud are more than adequate to keep the motor cool. 99% of the time it's other parts of the cooling system that cause over heating issues.

 

If it ain't broke don't fix it.. Pretty sure I found the leak, it's the small hose beside the larger one going into thermostat housing. I am gonna research this more but I'm thinking that the temperature switch is coming up out of intake going to a sensor with a plug on the bracket bolted to the egr? That metal hose where the heater hose attaches has some grunge from dried coolant on it. So many questions about this truck man, I'm reading now that the prestone "any make or model" may not have the proper additives or something or the other, basically what I got from the post was there's much better fluid geared towards our trucks than the green stuff for any vehicle. I never really payed much attention to that before I read it, but now I remember buying some ps fluid that was for any vehicle and it said on the bottle to not drain all of the fluid and use just that. This got me thinking even deeper, lol, with everything these days being about convenience and ease, it hit me that this, " all makes all models" coolant is something to catch someone's eye at a wally world who noticed water in their driveway and doesn't want to waste time trying to find the best stuff suited for the car they own. I may be going off in left field but just think how many jugs of stuff they sale that says "you can put this in anything" that may be so, but it could come back to bite u. I'd much rather spend a little now than a lot later, so am I being overly particular when it comes to the antifreeze I blindly chose? I didn't choose it in a hurry, I guess it made me feel safe because it states u can dump it in anything, like the whole crazy confusion about mercon, mercon v and the others, I've read mercon v is OK for my truck that calls for just mercon, I was low a little bit and stood in front of tranny fluid 10 minutes and bought Mobil one any make Trans fluid, the guy at osmileys had no clue he was even at work, so all the information can be an overload. I'd like to see a post become a sticky for the correct and best fluids for that truck, oil weights and brands I'm sure will be mixed, but maybe it isn't as important as I'm thinking. The trucks running cooler than it was so if it's not doing something inside the motor to harm it I guess it will be OK, I just like to know what I'm pouring in a vehicle is the best for that vehicle.