My 93 Aerostar started overheating and spewing out of the resevouir and a small leak at the heater core, replace the core and two thermostats and rad cap and still overheating. the rad and water pump are only a year old, any suggestions.

 

Is your radiator plugged up? Maybe get it cleaned out. Are the thermostats put in the right way (spring towards engine)? Is your fan shroud in tact? Fan clutch working? Just some ideas.....Good luck. Let us know what happens. And welcome to FTE!

-Matt

 

My '91 4.0 was overheating, it was worse in town then would cool a bit on
open road. In moderatly hot weather it would shut the airconditioner down.
Anyway it turned out the fan clutch had been damaged in a collision.
Neither Ford mech. or a local repair could fiqure it out-had to do it myself.
If it overheats quickly to the point of spewing antifreeze it could be a
cracked head or bad head gasket. Mine never heated to the point of spewing
antifreeze. It did have a cracked head which made it run rough when cold
which luckily happened during warranty. You should be able to hear the fan
run when driving around town it is fairly loud. If it is something relatively
minor you should fix it immediatly, if it is a cracked head it is already to late.
Good luck and please post to let us know how you come out.

 

i think the biggest culpret is a malfuntioning thermostat. (closed) you could remove it short term and see if it continues.. it would rule out the thermostat anyway. all it costs is time. and go from there. i know mine has a rubber o-ring gasket around it which i always forget to replace. i wiil next time!! just my 2 cents worth. rick

 

I have a 1995 Aerostar XLT with 3.0. The engine compartment seems a LOT hotter than I expected. This has been the situation since we drove the car away from the last owner. I recently purchased this A-star last week. Since then, I've heard from other enthusiasts that the Aerostar's engine bay can be (or seem to be) hotter than the typical "car" engine compartment, because the engine is covered-up by body. Likewise, some say that when you open the hood, all the heat exits in your face. But this engine seems too hot, even while standing by the vehicle next to the left wheel! It radiates heat!

I recently flushed my engine compartment SEVERAL times after I purchased the vehicle. The cooling fluid was muddy-dirty, but now, it's nice and clean. I did not change the thermostat. Prior to my cleaning the cooling system, and on the way home (~ 100 miles), the coolant temperature went from about 20-50%, and did some fluxuating. Didn't seem right. That's why I flushed it.

Since the flush, it has not overheated, and the coolant temp (gauge) reads about 20-25% all the time. I'm using about 70-80% coolant.

I changed the radiator cap to a vent-controlled Stant version.

Here are my questions:

1. Should I change the thermostat to see if I can get better coolant flow?

2. Should I try some of that high-tech coolant "cooler"...that costs about $20-25 per bottle?

Notes: The van is being driven in typical city/suburb traffic. No towing. No heavy loads. I also flushed and changed both the engine oil and tranny fluid. I changed both the tranny and oil filter. Used K & N HP 2009 oil filter, and a Purolator tranny filter. Air pressure is good in the tires.

I can't think of any other thing that I can do to keep the engine running with less effort. I'm looking for ideas on keeping this 3.0L engine (and its bay) cooler, so that all the plastics (and the engine) don't turn into charred carbon deposits over the next few years. Maybe my temp sensor is bad? But the water pump seemed alive and well as I did the Prestone-attachment coolant flush. Also, the temp. gauge does move from cold to around 20% after startup. I don't know what to do to make it cooler.

Thank you for your expertise.

 

Tim:

Stick with 50% water 50% antifreeze, unless you bought the premixed solution, in which case it should be used with no water mixed in. Also, if you mix water in with the antifreeze, use de-mineralized water (or filtered water). Otherwise, in areas of hard water, your radiator can be caked up pretty quickly.

Don't use more than 50% antifreeze. The antifreeze helps prevent the water from boiling and freezing, and it also prevents rusts from forming in the radiator. However, it does have one bad property. It has lower heat capacity and lower thermal conductivity than water. If you mix in too much, the combination of the two might cause your car to run hotter than it should, especially if the radiator is marginal to begin with.

Regards

 

Just a note "Antifreeze" does nothing to lower the temp. All it does is raise the boiling ponit. I would add Water Wetter "Red Line" which lowers water temp.

 

Okay, I'll drain the concentrated 80-20% (antifreeze-H20) mix down to 50-50%.

The reason that I mixed it so highly concentrated (80% Prestone) was to see if my exhaust drip had any "green" in it. The exhaust pipe drips for a few minutes after start-up, then decreases as it warms-up. When I bought this machine about a week ago, the start-up drip was as dirty as its filthy cooling mix (before cooling system flush). I flushed it 4 times.

I thought I had a blown head gasket.

I read all the good info about the micro-environment created in the exhaust/engine system (since then). With the 80% mix, I wanted a visual tool (a "dye") to make sure I wasn't dripping cooling fluid "through" the engine. But apparently now, my engine isn't dropping coolant - anymore. It was before, I think! But maybe I had too much coffee that day?

After I spotted the leak, I flushed the cooling system thoroughly (4x), then completed a K & W Block Seal treatment to the letter. Now the engine does not lose any cooling fluid at all. Nothing green, anyway. And unless my Aerostar's cooling system is similar to my brethren's Tennessee Hillbilly moonshine stills (separating antifreeze from water, then ejecting the brew out the pipe!) the block seal treatment must have worked.

This Aerostar engine compartment is still as hot as it was the day I bought it. It seems way too hot.

I'm told that the Aerostar's engine hot engine bay is inevitable.

In any case, thanks for all the good advice regarding reducing coolant mixture to 50-50%. I'll do that tonight. I didn't think of the cooling reduction by increasing solution. I was just thinking of locating identifying a possible head gasket leak (easily) by using the high concentration.

In the meantime, I'm still looking for the "golden-BB" to make my engine and engine bay cooler. Dream as I may, I suppose.

Notwithstanding the heat in the engine bay, I love this vehicle. What a neat machine..."Spacecraft"..."Transport System"...whatever, it's nice.

Thanks again, Copper, et al.

Tim

 

Antifreeze raises boiling point and lowers freezing point.

Where I live, I'm more concerned about freezing. I have to use a 70-30 mixture.

Anything over 70% antifreeze, the maufactures say, degrades the coolant's performance.

 

Chuck:

I forgot that I live in Southern California where freezing is never a problem. However, even with a 50-50 mixture, it must be ver.......y cold to freeze that

Also, Tim seems worried about the heat, not the cold. But wait until the winter arrives, he he.

 

I just installed two air scoops to increase air flow under the hood. Big difference. Was told many RV have them to help cool the engine and that you could try to modify one for the aerostar, or just build one out of metal dryer venting. I did the later by cutting two small squares in the rubber air foil under the bumper and using the dryer venting to carry the air flow under the frount swaybar and up into the engine compartment. each side is about 1.5 feet long. You can now open the hood without the blast furnace and the A/C seems to be more effective. I did this as my 95 aerostar died on long hill in 38+ degree heat with wife, two kids and dog for 3 hours. The engine temp gauge never got too high and it would idle on side of road, but would die after 30sec of driving up hill ( the AC would not even blow cold and the engine compartment was soooo hot) Never had the problem before and with new modifications, hope to never have it again.

 

Hey Lalach,

That is an outstanding idea! I'm scheduled for a trip to the mountains tomorrow. I'm going to try and fabricate a similar scoop this afternoon.

Your idea, observed from success with RV-solutions...kind of reminds me of that TV commercial about getting a patent on your idea..."clap-on, clap-off".

Maybe you could design & sell a kit for A-Star Drivers? It seems like a common problem, why not?

Cheers!

(I still need to get my antifreeze mix right...busy with life)

Thanks to everyone. I am so grateful for the experience and assistance ofered by this forum.

Tim

 

Just a few more things to look at:

1. The fan. If you spin it by hand, it should have some resistance. I had an Aerostar that ran hot before. I grabbed the fan, spun it, and it spun and kept spinning. No resistance. I replaced it and the engine temp lowered considerably.

2. Are the radiator fins plugged with bugs and leaves? That will make a difference.

3. When you drain the radiator, note the time to fill it up. If the radiator fills up quickly and then burps down slowly before you can pur more in = plugged radiator.

4. Last and a rare one. I found a water pump that had the impeller worn down to the point where it wasn't circulating the coolant.

There's my two cents, hope it helps someone!

 

I have seen where rebuilt water pumps do not have the backing plate on the impeller which stops cavatation of the water. If you have one of these, Revit a plate to the impeller that most auto stores sell or make one.

 

SGTJoe, Muffinman,

I have a feeling that there is something sub-par with my water pump. I think I'm going to replace that component sooner than I planned, just in case. Shouldn't be that expensive to do. The fins on the radiator...I'll check that out too. Water pump in general, and the backing plate? Guess I'll have to wait until I disassemble the pump to see what gives, and if the new one has a backing. "Cavitating"...I understand what you mean...reminds of watching the screws of a Coast Guard cutter pop out of the water when we made our approach to land our helicopter (HH-65A) aboard ship at night...the ship guys were notorious for mid-guessing their sea recovery conditions... to see that big screw popping out of the water at night (cavitating), and in high seas...well, it was a little disconcerting. Thanks for the flash-back guys; I needed that. 8-!