I have an 87 with the straight 6 fuel injected. I added aftermarket gauges since all of mine did not function.

With the 195 thermostat, i range between 190 and 220 usually and when idling usually hit about 225-230. Is this a normal range?

Oil pressure is relatively high when first cranked, but once operating temp is reached, I sit at about 20 during acceleration, and maintain about 5 when idling. Is that a normal range?

Finally, I have some sputtering issues when I first crank it and when its been running for a while. It will idle up, idle down, sputter and shut off. When cranking, if I feed in on the gas, it keeps running and eventually goes fine. When it sputters after driving, I have had it shut off on me and take a few mins before it would crank back up. Does this sound like it could be the idle Air Sensor?

Thanks in advance!

 

Same year truck as me, same engine. What tranny? I've got 4-speed manual.

There is no idle air sensor that I'm aware of. There is only the idle air control valve, which goes by many names, and the intake air temp sensor or air charge temp sensor. IAC's on the throttle body, IAT is on the lower intake manifold right behind the heater hoses.

You can ohm the idle air control valve, or simply unplug it, idle should drop.

The oil spec I find is 40-60psi at 2000 RPM. Rev warm engine to 2K and check oil pressure.

I can't find specs on operating temp but it sounds good to me.

If your battery hasn't been disconnected lately I'd pull codes if you can, check and see if there are any stored.

Do you have a fuel pressure gauge installed?

 

WAY low oil pressure. Oil pressure should be constant no matter the rpm. (well, it will vary a little). Ford oil pump are designed to put out too much oil at high rpm, so they have good idle pressure. (They have a spring bleed off in the pump to get rid of the excess) I would say you either have a bad oil pump, or have a massive problem in the engine. (VERY loose tolerances, cracked oil journal (I have had one of those, had to scrap the truck)) You can try a new oil pump, 2wd is easy enough to get the pan off, see if that helps. May want to switch to 15W40 in summer time, should help.

Water can get hoter if in hot weather when you idle, especially with A/C on. When you are idling and you get hotter, rev the engine to about 2k for a minute, and see if the temp goes down. If it does, its normal.

Just my opinion, though.

 

I will go ahead and replace the oil pump.
Would it be advisable to ditch the clutched fan and run a static one that operates all of the time to help with temp?

Idle air control valve is what I was talking about, I have a C6 Transmission.
I do not have a fuel pressure gauge at this time, but I will soon.

 

Aight gotcha.

I do not recommend a static fan. Will cause the truck to take longer to reach operating temp, which will mean longer fast idles, which burns more gas. I plan on swapping back to the good ol' stock thermostat too.

I myself should wire in a fuel pressure gauge.