just to make sure… you still have your fan shroud on?
OP seems to be on the right track. Here’s what I do when the cooling system is acting up on my Ford truck. This presumes the coolant is otherwise in good shape. If not first flush the cooling system.
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Buy a new radiator cap, and have some pre-mixed coolant ready to go. Drive the front wheels up on ramps, remove the radiator cap, idle the engine and watch the level inside the radiator as the engine warms at idle, topping it off if it drops. Keep an eye on the coolant temp gauge as well, don’t allow the engine to overheat. You may notice air burps, or big air bubbles coming up through the radiator. That’s normal, and indicates air is being expelled from the cooling system. This should stop after 5-10 minutes. If the bubbles continue, or you see zillions of small bubbles, bad news, could be a head gasket problem. Probably not though, and eventually the bubbles will stop, thermostat will open and the coolant level will start to overflow the radiator. Turn the engine off, put the radiator cap on.
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If that doesn’t fix the overheating problem, pressure test the cooling system.
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Still overheating? Check for ignition timing and/or mixture problems. Too lean will definitely cause overheating. Also check that thermostat opens at the right temperature and to the correct dimension.
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Still got the problem? You may have water pump or radiator problems. Take one or the other or both to a radiator shop for analysis.
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for the future this is a good website for ford problem
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Well thank you everyone I did flush the system but we eventually pulled the water pump and the whole thing was rusted out!! Problem fixed now time to move on to the oil leak I have !!!
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Wow, impeller totally gone.
Thank you for getting back to us.
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Well everyone here had a part in helping me figure this out, thank you. Till next time y’all.
great you found the issue… but now it begs the next questions:
- what else in the cooling system was damaged?
- how often coolant was changed?
- is it time to go full flush and new coolant?
So, you are saying your old wp had no flow? And truck was semi driveable?
A friend of mine had WP stall and belt was simply sliding over it on his 15+ years old Audi A6 and the only symptom was no heat, but since it was summer-time, he did not care.
That car lived through the Virginia summer before he cared to investigate and fix, yet engine was not overheating and it was drivable for around 3 more years his kid was using it, then it made it to the graveyard on its own feet during Obama’s era “cash for clunkers” program.
Important to note that that “inline-5” engine had solid cast iron block and convection cooling was one of the “fall-back” passive things there, it had reasonably good circulation even with no WP.
Must have been a tough belt.
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The engine blew up in September so idd say the damage was bad.
i now have a brand new engine and transmission in the truck and trying to figure out a all new different problem lol.