Hi, first, thanks for your dedication to helping others.
My situation is as follows: I have a 1997 Ford Ranger with the 2.3L engine and manual transmission. The odometer sits around 317,000 miles. I have being noticing the temperature gauge increase when I run the truck under stop and go traffic and going uphill (under load basically). No overheating at idle, but if I come into a stop after temps started to rise, it is going to keep rising or just stay high. Temps go down once I get into level ground and going at constant speed where the load is way lower and I can cruise at 5th gear. I live in Puerto Rico so ambient temps here are always around 90+F and humid. The truck originally did not came with A/C system which I installed and properly wired so it works like factory (ice cold). I always have the A/C on so thats part of the load. A/C compressor is new so I know it works properly and the condenser came from a donor truck that was wrecked and was working properly too.
Parts recently changed: Fan clutch, radiator, water pump, and new fluid (obviously), Temp sending unit
Parts unchanged: thermostat, temp sensor.
Can a thermostat be restricting a little coolant flow to underperform when having heavier engine load? Or are the fan blades different from Non A/C Rangers and A/C equipped Rangers?
The thermostat can cause overheating if it is stuck fully or partially closed. Did you put in a larger radiator when you installed the AC to handle the increased heat load? That was done at the factory back when AC was optional on most cars.
Thanks for your answer. At least from the research I have done, they came with only one radiator type/size. But I have read from other forums that at least for the 3.0 and 4.0 V6s engines there was a "supercooling" fan blade, but nothing from the 2.3L 4cyl. Also, pretending its the thermostat, would you recommend using a 180F therm or an OE 192F for it being and old vehicle and being used in a warm weather?
Might be OK to use a 180 thermostat in a warm climate if it allows the engine to get up to operating temperature.
What about a new radiator cap. You didn't mention that. Did you properly burp the air out of the system with the heater core fully opened when you put new coolant in it? You might consider a lower temperature thermostat, say 180 F instead of 195 F. Lots of variables here.
The radiator cap is "old" or at least I I have not replaced it myself. About air in the system, since where I live heater core are useless, its not even connected and I had the air burp out with a typical method of cycling the system and waiting for all bubbles to end. Also no coolant is being burnt or leaking or whatever so the head gasket should be fine.
Cycling the system doesn't get it. There is a proper procedure for this. Consider a new "fail safe" thermostat that stays open when it breaks so your engine won't overheat and get damaged.
I will try burping the system again and making sure I do the procedure correctly and also changing the radiator cap since thats fairly cheap. If not I will then proceed to change the thermostat with a 180F one or just change it since it might be restricting the flow under load. Thabks