2000 5.4 Triton V8 Expedition still overheating!

First I'd like to again thank everyone who replied to my previous post about my Expedition not passing California smog test. Fortunately, it finally passed yesterday (the suggestions regarding driving it for a couple of hundred miles was on-point) and I picked it up from the mechanic yesterday after work. Not only had the vehicle previously not passed the smog pretest several times, but the temperature guage was also going into the red zone.

My mechanic put 400 miles on it, actually used it to move personal possessions from his old house to another, including lumber, but also pulled a trailer with it. (I like the guy so I'm not making an issue of it because all the driving -- 400 miles worth and he had the vehicle for six weeks -- apparently did contribute to it passing the smog test.)

Anyway, he said that it never overheated in the hundreds of miles he drove it. Well I drove it to work this morning (no problems) and then on my way home had to drop by his shop again because he'd left some personal property in the truck. The temperature today was about 101 degrees from the start of the trip home until I reached his shop, and the temp guage stayed in the middle until I hit traffic close to town and had to slow-down, stop at red lights etc. when it started inching north of the middle line. By the time I got to his shop it was past 3/4 of the way from the cold zone. I mentioned this to him and he said it was nothing to worry about. (In the past, that shop has told me that the guage going into the red zone didn't constitute actual "overheating".

After dropping-off the items I headed home and the guage again started inching up close to the red zone. When I arrived at my house the indicator was actually vertical *IN* the red zone.

Granted I'm no mechanic but this doesn't seem right to me, especially after spending over $2600 to rectify the situation.

What do people here think about this? The hot season here lasts for months and, although I'm happy the vehicle finally passed smog, now I'm hesitant to take it any long distance when the temepratures are in the 90s and 100s (as they often are here in the summer months into September.)

I'm going to see if I can attach images of the two invoices that show all the work that's been done to the Expedition this summer.

bad/clogged radiator, water pump??

It's actually overheating. Check the exhaust for whitish smoke. You may have a cracked cylinder head. You should never have loaned it to him unless you are planning to get another vehicle.

"By the time I got to his shop it was past 3/4 of the way from the cold zone. I mentioned this to him and he said it was nothing to worry about. (In the past, that shop has told me that the gauge going into the red zone didn't constitute actual "overheating"."

Partially true - the gauge may be inaccurate and there is a method of testing the gauge response to the sender input. The comment about not worrying about it - WRONG. The source of the problem needs to be found. Using an infrared temp gun, which are pretty cheap at Harbor Freight, you can read the temps into and out of the radiator or engine.

What shape was/is the coolant in? How old is it? Does or did it have a dark color to it (rusty brown)? Is the fan shroud in place? How old is the water pump and radiator?

If your temp gauge normally is reading straight up then starts heading towards the "hot" zone, something isn't right. Don't let it get near or into the red zone. Heat kills just about everything and engines are not excluded.

docraymund said:

It's actually overheating. Check the exhaust for whitish smoke. You may have a cracked cylinder head. You should never have loaned it to him unless you are planning to get another vehicle.

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Thanks for your reply.
I actually DIDN'T "loan" the vehicle to him, I just brought it in to be fixed! I was pretty shocked to hear that he'd used it to haul his personal property and a trailer, believe me! I do think that was inappropriate and taking advantage but, as I wrote above, I like the guy and didn't want to make an issue of it especially in front of the other people in the shop at the time he mentioned it, although it we'd have had privacy I may have done so. I was just embarrassed to bring it up in that circumstance with several other people there.

Where is your huge discount for him having hte vehicle for 6 weeks and hauling stuff around with it :\
Stamp is dead on point. You need to find out why its showing hot. I went through this with my 2K EB I bought used. Ended up being a blown head gasket and I drove it for months before it got bad enough that it really started using coolant. I thought it was a bad sending unit. I'd drive it on the highway and it was fine. Id get in town and sometimes it was fine, sometimes it would go into limp mode with the temp pegged out. I'd shut it off and turn it back and and it would be fine. Ultimately I replaced the motor but nothing about what I was seeing was logical. Especially when it didn't seem to have the temp pegged out. (I personally believe I was pushing hot gasses into the water jacket, just not enough to be obvious in the degas bottle). One other thing of note and this pertains to stamps question about the condition of the coolant. The blades on my water pump were partially rusted away which I'm sure did not contribute to good flow at low RPM.

Time to look for another shop. Any shop mechanic that would use a customer's vehicle for personal use would likely take shortcuts on work. Hauling lumber are you serious???

Update: The radiator was finally pulled and this is what was found -- apparently the former owner had poured some kind of stop-leak chemical into the radiator and it clogged the whole thing up with a thick, tan-colored gunk. New radiator installed and so far no overheating.
Thanks to all above who offered feedback on my OP!

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the disappointing thing is that the other mechanic didn't figure that out.

tcwaltz said:

the disappointing thing is that the other mechanic didn't figure that out.

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I agree, but the main thing is you figured it out and you are up and running again. It's ALWAYS best to try and figure things out on your own, no one is more honest with you than you!