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91 explorer, burped the cooling system and a few big air bubbles came out.
The method I used was sticking a funnel tight into the radiator filler neck, filling it halfway up the funnel with water and letting the engine idle until the thermostat opened. I had the heater on the whole time and it was blowing warm-hot air consistent with the temperature gauge readings.
What i observed, was the temperature gauge would get 3/4 up then the thermostat would open and it would drop down to 1/4 stay there for around a minute and do it all over again. I did this with the funnel in about 5 times until no more bubbles surfaced through the water.
So I put the cap on and went for a 10 minute cruise, thinking the system being under pressure would stabilize the wide range of temperature variance. It did the same thing, but the heater was blowing hot air the entire time.
So when I got back to my house, I let it idle a few minutes until the gauge got to 3/4 and shut it off. Went and grabbed the fan clutch, it doesn't spin freely but it spins just like the one sitting in my garage. How tight are they suppose to be when warm? Keep in mind during all this I never once heard the fan howl like I'm used too on fan clutch cars.
I reused the fan clutch from my old engine, which had cooling problems according to the guy I got the explorer from.
My question is, Is this a case of a bad fan clutch, or sticking thermostat? The radiator cap is a ventable stant, but it has this issue cap on or off so I don't suspect that to be an issue.
What do you guys think?
The method I used was sticking a funnel tight into the radiator filler neck, filling it halfway up the funnel with water and letting the engine idle until the thermostat opened. I had the heater on the whole time and it was blowing warm-hot air consistent with the temperature gauge readings.
What i observed, was the temperature gauge would get 3/4 up then the thermostat would open and it would drop down to 1/4 stay there for around a minute and do it all over again. I did this with the funnel in about 5 times until no more bubbles surfaced through the water.
So I put the cap on and went for a 10 minute cruise, thinking the system being under pressure would stabilize the wide range of temperature variance. It did the same thing, but the heater was blowing hot air the entire time.
So when I got back to my house, I let it idle a few minutes until the gauge got to 3/4 and shut it off. Went and grabbed the fan clutch, it doesn't spin freely but it spins just like the one sitting in my garage. How tight are they suppose to be when warm? Keep in mind during all this I never once heard the fan howl like I'm used too on fan clutch cars.
I reused the fan clutch from my old engine, which had cooling problems according to the guy I got the explorer from.
My question is, Is this a case of a bad fan clutch, or sticking thermostat? The radiator cap is a ventable stant, but it has this issue cap on or off so I don't suspect that to be an issue.
What do you guys think?
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