Hi hi guys I'm new to this and I would love for someone to send me some information.
I have a 2000 Econoline 250 with 234,000 miles.
I will start from the end and then I will explain to you what happened and hopefully someone can give me a good answer.

My van will not stop overheating.
I have replaced water pump fan clutch thermostat recently, my radiator last year
I can run my van idle for over an hour and it will not overheat at all. As soon as I drive within two miles my gauge shoots up too hot and I lose power and I have to stop.

I have taken it to Ford and they have told me "possible head gasket"
And that's that, but for reason I do not believe that

Someone please help

 

Is the fan shroud missing?

 

I'm sorry I'm not very familiar with cars/vans and how they work or what they need. I have never worked on a shourd on the van. So it's the original. I hope that helps

 

The fan shroud in installed on the inboard side of the radiator, the fan blades are kind of Inside the shroud, this keeps the air flow direct in line with the fan blades.

With 234K on a 4.6? or 5.4? engine, it could be a head gasket problem, the only way to really check is with a compression check, Like this.....Link

And, yes. a bad head gasket will cause over heating with a load on the engine, IE: Driving down the road, not just parked and idle.

 

Thanks very much for the answer the dealer did tell me they did a compression test and said they found air in the engine is just hard for me to except that I want to believe it's something more simple