97 SOHC Operating Temperatures

[drdoom]

40F ambient, coolant levels good, have heat in cabin, closed loop, live data from ECT 159F.

I am asking if this sounds about right to the membership. Seems a little low to me, making me wonder about a stuck thermostat or maybe fan clutch?

Thanks,
Doc

 

[donalds]

192-195f is normal temp
Look into a stuck thermostat in my opinion

 

[drdoom]

Thank you @donalds

 

[CDW6212R]

Temps will fluctuate a lot based on conditions and speed. When warmed up it should not be under say 185, or above about 205, unless something is amiss. Lower temp rated T'stats will drop the range by about 10-20 degrees if everything is working right.

You probably have a bad thermostat, it's time to change it. Use only a top brand name, 180 is a great choice for where you are.

 

[koda2000]

I agree with the "bad thermostat" opinions. I suggest you replace it with a Motorcraft brand t-stat. They're more expensive they work better.

 

[CDW6212R]

Part of the problems are younger people don't know what a good brand is, plus brands change and some old brands are now unreliable etc. Timken used to be "the" top bearing maker, now they are suspect, imported, but we still gravitate to those.

I see tons of brands that never existed a good while ago, I rarely ever consider those. They are just in the way of locating the good parts, looking at Rock Auto is annoying most times due to the crap brands available.

Robert Shaw is a top thermostat brand, but I had one too long ago which opened way too early, an errant bad unit I guess. I would still buy those if they fit the need, availability and price etc.

 

[koda2000]

Part of the problems are younger people don't know what a good brand is, plus brands change and some old brands are now unreliable etc. Timken used to be "the" top bearing maker, now they are suspect, imported, but we still gravitate to those.

I see tons of brands that never existed a good while ago, I rarely ever consider those. They are just in the way of locating the good parts, looking at Rock Auto is annoying most times due to the crap brands available.

Robert Shaw is a top thermostat brand, but I had one too long ago which opened way too early, an errant bad unit I guess. I would still buy those if they fit the need, availability and price etc.

I agree, with so many manufactures moving their parts production to places like China, India, Mexico and places I've never heard of, even parts that used to be considered good/top quality can't be trusted anymore.

I often look at the on-line RockAuto catalog to see what brands people are buying and are happy with (based on the little red heart symbol). These day's I rely heavily on customer reviews for everything I buy. Not exactly scientific, but for me it's getting to the point where I only trust Motorcraft OE for critical parts for my Fords. For non-critical stuff it's a crap shoot.

I recently bought a replacement front fender for our 2009 Ford Fusion. I was planning to buy an OE replacement part, but with shipping a Ford OE fender was ridiculously expensive. I found one on Amazon that was a fraction of the cost (with free shipping just over $100) that had very good customer reviews. I figured if I wasn't happy with it I'd just return it. It arrived quickly, was well packaged and when I test-fit it on the vehicle, to my amazement, it was a perfect fit and required no modification. I think it says it was made in Taiwan. I'm absolutely thrilled with the fit of this non-critical part for the money. I'm taking the fender to the body shop to be painted next week. You just never know these day's.

 

[Mr. Alligator]

@koda2000 ... Glad to hear at least one good experience with imported parts.

Aftermarket parts have become such consistent junk. Replace a part, and it can not be trusted. I go to salvage more and more, because twenty (+) year old stuff seems better. Advance Auto, etc., seems like a convenience store for cheap junk, Rock Auto seems to be another version of junk. Junk! Junk! Junk!

I can’t stand it, and am surprised we can tolerate it.

Dang.

 

[drdoom]

Thank you @CDW6212R & @koda2000

 

[koda2000]

@koda2000 ... Glad to hear at least one good experience with imported parts. Aftermarket parts have become such consistent junk. Replace a part, and it can not be trusted. I go to salvage more and more, because twenty (+) year old stuff seems better. Advance Auto, etc., seems like a convenience store for cheap junk, Rock Auto seems to be another version of junk. Junk! Junk! Junk!

I can’t stand it, and am surprised we can tolerate it.

Dang.

I agree. I watched a YouTube video the other day where a guy had an old Toyota 4x4 pickup. At 300,000 miles his original OE ball joints were wore out. He bought Moog Problem Solvers, which are what many of us here use. I think the upper Moog's were holding up okay, other than developing torn boots (my experience with Moog as well), but the lowers were worn out after only a couple of thousand miles. He returned them and got warrantied Moog replacements. The replacements only lasted a few thousand miles as well. He returned those and decided to try AutoZone's Duralast lower BJ's. He found that w/out even driving on them they both had vertical play in them. He removed them, returned them and is now buying OEM Toyota replacements, hoping to get another 300K out of them.

I will sometimes buy cheap parts because they're things that are easy to change and non-critical. In the past year I bought a Dorman EATC blend door actuator (after using some Amazon points I think I paid under $3 for it. It's still working fine almost a year later. Another cheap part I bought was an IAC. I think I paid $11 for it (again using Amazon points). I found it made my truck idle too high, but then I discovered that it could be adjusted. I adjusted it and it's been working fine for at least 6 months now. You just never know. Sometimes it's worth the gamble, sometimes you loose.

 

[CDW6212R]

Ditto, we buy some of the junk to save money in the long run. We do save money, but there's some expectation of some extra work to deal with bad parts. Sometimes it's worth making a claim/swap for another cheap one and other times you decide to take the full loss and go to another brand or part.

Accel used to be a great brand. I have one bad coil pack and the matching one I took off, I had a miss that took me over a year to trace back to the new coil packs, I never imagined such a new good brand part would fail.

 

[56_F100]

40F ambient, coolant levels good, have heat in cabin, closed loop, live data from ECT 159F.

I am asking if this sounds about right to the membership. Seems a little low to me, making me wonder about a stuck thermostat or maybe fan clutch?

Thanks,
Doc

Engine temp is way low. Had a similar problem with my '97 SOHC around 100,000 miles with OEM stat. Because of a gazillion things going on, took it to the Ford dealership. They replaced with Motorcraft. Problem solved, and continued working properly even after I sold the vehicle with 170,000 on the odometer.

 

[drdoom]

Thank you @56_F100
I plan to change it out with a salvaged thermostat tonight. Will update soon.

 

[donalds]

Noooo buy a new one cost $10 this is not a item to risk your engine on remember a thermostat can cause overheating or running cold

Just sayen

 

[RickOTR]

Have never had any luck with Motorcraft Thermostats. On every one the secondary disc valve and lower spring broke leaving them sitting at the bottom of the thermostat. I only buy Stant Thermostats because they are made in the good old USA and have had great luck with them. Just replaced mine about 8 months ago because it took forever for the X to warm up to a max of 185 degrees. Would not warm up any more. Normal reading is 198-205 degrees. The Stant lasted 11 years.

Edit:

When it comes to bleeding the air out of the system, it's best to have it vacuum filled which is what they do at the factory. This is the only way I've found to removal all the air and get it up to full running temperature.

 

[drdoom]

That took care of it, temperature is back to normal. Thank you everyone for the help and support.

 

[drdoom]

@RickOTR I agree, Stant is a good brand, I have had good results with their radiator caps.

@donalds I agree it is not good practice to use a salvaged thermostat, but I had one here that was known good, and the off brand thermostats at the parts house were North of twenty bucks.

The defective thermostat was the one that came with the aftermarket housing I put in several years and 60,000 miles ago.