Coolant Temp

[4D55RANGER]

Hello everyone, finally got my 4D55 back in time after swapping the head. Thanks for the help! Ended up having an issue with a plugged radiator as well. New radiator, water pump, thermostat, 4D56 head. The truck seems to run a little bit warm I haven't really ran it down the road because of this. On the temp guage in my ranger, it sits around half with the heat on with no load, and goes up to a little over half, probably 5/8ths with the heat off when driving down the road. What is normal for the 4D55? Just looking to see where everyone's temp gauge sits. I am thinking that buying a higher quality thermostat would help. I'm a first responder, and haven't really driven the truck because I don't want to end up with overheating issues at 2 a.m. Thanks in advance.

[skullzaflare]

Cant really compare due to being a different gauge, its possible the factory rangers nice point is 180f, my d56 tends to run around 195-210. If thats the case, you will read a little over half on the ranger due to being over the 180 (that i am assuming)

For instance, in my conquest, the same setup stayed just a hair under half, in my ram50 it reads a hair over 1/4

EDIT- though it is possible your fins are rusted away on the water pump
EDIT- on my d56, the hose i ran for heater was off the metal pipe and from the head. I noticed in the conquest (conquest blocks the flow to turn off heat) the motor would get hotter, so i put a valve in so when i turn heat off, the coolant turns around and goes to the other hose, this made a big difference

[Jmuirhead9]

Hey,

I also have a 4d55 Ranger, 86, and it normally reads halfway on the temp gauge. I do get temp spikes where it'll go over half sometimes, especially on hills, get a little nervous and usually turn on the heat.. usually just balances back out. I did install a lower temp thermostat for extra piece of mind. It's never actually overheated unless I ran low on coolant...Which I have recently due to coolant bubbling out of my overflow tank...

Which is a question I was about to post...so not to hijack your thread...but maybe someone has advice for both of us...same truck, potentially similar problem...tho it doesnt seem to be running hot, but over time I lose coolant from the overflow via bubbling out. Do you ever get that 4d55RANGER? I guess that's part of the question, is there any way to test if your cooling system is working properly? Last time it happened my rad wasn't even warm...and engine didn't feel super hot. normal?

[geezer101]

Electric thermo fan time. Way more efficient at cooling, does it when the engine needs it most, takes a load off your water pump and degoverns the engine as the pump driven fan is a source of parasitic power loss, frees up engine bay room as it is more compact and all the components can bought on a budget and is pretty straight forward to install (you can also install a bypass switch in the dash to turn it on remotely in that moment when it looks like it's going to go nuclear from getting hot). If you don't have A/C you can fit a 'push' fan to the front of the radiator which will make it easier to work on the engine.