New Member from Northern Idaho

[Firekatt]

Hi everyone!!

I'm totally new to the Expeditions and just purchased my first used one. Picked up a '97 XLT 4X4 for $500 bucks. Going to be posting some questions as there are issues...especially at that price....but shouldn't be something I can't figure out with a little help. I am good at working on cars and trucks and very mechanically inclined. Everything from tune-ups to compete engine rebuilds.

Basically it has a weird overheating issue but I haven't started to work on figuring it out yet

Looking forward to getting to know some of you

 

[Habbibie]

Well welcome to the site, will this expedition be your primary mode of transportation or do you daily drive something else?

 

[Firekatt]

Once it is fixed, it'll be my daily driver. For now, I'm driving my wife's 91 explorer. I'll start troubleshooting the overheating issue tomorrow. It's weird, but it overheats only when driving...it can sit at idle forever and not do it. No water in the oil and nothing out the exhaust so I'm thinking something other than a head gasket for now. Maybe a flow problem, thermostat or clogged radiator. It does seem to have a miss while running but no codes set indicating a misfire. That's all I know so far.

 

[Habbibie]

Once it is fixed, it'll be my daily driver. For now, I'm driving my wife's 91 explorer. I'll start troubleshooting the overheating issue tomorrow. It's weird, but it overheats only when driving...it can sit at idle forever and not do it. No water in the oil and nothing out the exhaust so I'm thinking something other than a head gasket for now. Maybe a flow problem, thermostat or clogged radiator. It does seem to have a miss while running but no codes set indicating a misfire. That's all I know so far.

Sounds like a stuck closed thermostat. You can also do a compression test to make sure there isn't a crack in the block or a broken head gasket, $$$ money wise that's your two cheapest alternatives before you start getting down and dirty.

 

[ExplorerTom]

See if the upper radiator hose gets hot once the engine warms warms up.

Could also have air in the system.

 

[1997SCEBFEX]

welcome aboard.

 

[Habbibie]

Tom is right, Air in the system is also possible but for it to be enough to over heat the motor it has to be a big air bubble, otherwise usually youll notice that you don't have heat while driving but when idling heat works great or vise versa I can't remember.

 

[Firekatt]

Thanks for all the replys. I pulled the thermostat this morning and put it in a pot with boiling water. It cracked open but only about a 1/16 of an inch. Doesn't seem wide enough to allow good flow. Also had a lot of rust in the water, previous owner had straight water in it...didn't detect any anti-freeze or smell. It has one of those aftermarket flush kit adapters in the heater hose so I hooked up a garden hose to that and opened the radiator drain and flushed water through it for a little over 30 min. Started it up and drove a little bit while watching the gauge. The gauge went up to a normal range...which seems weird since it did not have the thermostat in it and never started blowing warm air out the heater. Not going to drive it any without the thermostat but I'm thinking that's what caused the overheating. Wondering if the temp sensor is bad and that's causing the gauge to not show correctly. Is there any way to check these without having to buy a new one yet?

Still runs rough but I also learned that it had been sitting for just over a year. Thinking a combination of bad gas and dirty fuel injectors is causing this issue. Going to do a full tune up and add some fuel system cleaner to the next gas fill up to see if that helps it at all. A tune up will also allow me to check the old plugs for anything unusual.

 

[ExplorerTom]

I have an UltraGauge. It will read water temp (among a ton of other things). The factory gauge sucks. It'll read "normal" when the UltraGauge is still reading like 120 degrees. And it'll continue to read "normal" as the engine heats up to 195 degrees.

With the UG, I can actually see when the thermostat opens. Temps can go as high as 210 before dropping back to 188. Normally it'll fluctuate between 192 and 198. All while the factory gauge remains dead still at "normal".

 

[ExplorerTom]

And pure water is not good. Coolant provides lubrication and corrosion resistance- as well as cooling.

 

[Firekatt]

ExplorerTom - that is good to know about the factory gauge. I'll make sure to remember that as I'm working on the rig. Don't know if I want to add a gauge just yet but it may be a very real possibility in the near future once it's my daily driver.

And pure water is not good. Coolant provides lubrication and corrosion resistance- as well as cooling.

I do know this. The pure water is very very temporary...only until payday this Friday. I'm not driving it anywhere and would rather have something in it rather than being empty until I can get the coolant and new thermostat.

 

[ExplorerTom]

You can get an UltraGauge for $65ish. Plus it'll read and reset engine trouble codes. I like mine a lot.

 

[Firekatt]

Thanks for the info Tom, I looked at the ultragauge website and I'm thinking I may go ahead and get the $80 one that I can use an app on my phone with. Looks like a very useful tool and I believe it will work on any vehicle with an OBDII connector.

 

[Big Brian]

speaking of rusty looking water...

I spent a few years as a mechanic in a Lincoln Mercury dealer.

One day this Topaz (remember those?) came in

Overheating but acting real weird. It had nothing but rusty looking water in it (may have been coolant, could not tell)

Was not circulating well. After look at the tstat, etc I could not figure it out.

So I took the water pump off. The vanes on the pump had rusted away! Just nubs there trying to push water.

Just thought I would share what happens if you do not maintain the cooling system

 

[Bedrck47]

Welcome to the Forum

Was surprised that no one asked what engine you have in the expy

 

[Firekatt]

Welcome to the Forum

Was surprised that no one asked what engine you have in the expy

Actually, I am too and I apologize for not mentioning it. It's a '97 4x4 with the Triton 5.4L. No one has mentioned anything either about the running rough, but I do need to narrow that down more. It acts like it's missing on 1-2 cylinders but it's not setting a misfire code. Only codes coming up is the airbag flashing a 32 - clockspring. Does anyone know if the clockspring is an aftermarket item or dealer only part?

Big Brian - Yeah, I do know what you mean as far as the rusty water goes. I worked as a mechanic for 18 years before going more into welding. Seen my share of neglected cooling systems. I do plan on pulling the water pump off and taking a look at it before filling with regular coolant.

Edit: After the little bit I've ran it, it now is setting codes for cylinder misfire on #2 and #8. I'm thinking #8's spark plug may have never been changed as it's the hardest to reach. I'll be checking the plug on #2 shortly.

2nd Edit: Pulled #2 spark plug out, plug is black and slightly wet. Makes me think it's not firing...possible coil? Coil isn't cracked or buldging...is it possible to test it out of the motor?

 

[Firekatt]

So, after doing a little brainstorming, I decided to really check the coils. Since I don't have access to a bunch of tools, I did it the old fashioned way. I pulled the coil off of #2 and swapped it with the one on #1. Cleared the codes and drove the rig about 2 miles. Pulled the codes and sure enough, the misfire code went from #2 to #1 cylinder. Bad coil. With this, I'm seriously suspecting a bad coil on #8 as well. Plan on purchasing 8 brand new coils and change them all out when I do the spark plugs since it currently had Autolites in it and I'd rather have Motorcraft.

 

[ExplorerTom]

I've had people try to tell me that coils aren't wear items and should last forever. I don't buy it. I replaced all of mine.

Make sure to get new boots with your coils. The boots can dry out and not seal out water as well. If water (or oil) fills up the spark plug well, you'll get a misfire symptom but it won't always set a code because the coil is still firing.

 

[Habbibie]

Doesn't matter what engine you have (5.4 or 4.6) they both use the same principle in cooling components

 

[Big Brian]

Airbag clockspring

good old rockauto.com

https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog...v8,1119596,interior,air+bag+clockspring,10480