Getting the x ready for camping

[Danimal86]

in the beginning of august i am going camping near the coast, and i want to make sure that my x is ready for the job. she just passed 200K miles a bit ago, and has recently had problems starting. i took it to a family friend, and he found that the wire harness on the side of the distributer was cracked and loose, he replaced it, and i though it was fixed, but every so often it wont start (just keeps cranking)...i took it back to him, and he said that if it happens again, to try tapping a relay (think thats what it was) thats in the black box on the left side of the engine compartment....its the one on the bottom right of the back of relays. that seems to fix the problem, i beleive he said it was the ECU relay...if that makes sense. is there any trick to replacing those, or is it just a unplug, plug new one it kinda job?

I have also been having some problems with my engine temp. when i first start driving, my temp rises to the top end of "normal", and then quckly dropes down to the lower end of "normal". i used to never have problems with it warming up (stayed 1/4 of the way from cold), until i had some work done, and had the thermostat replaced....could i have gotten a faulty one? i picked up a Prestone radiator flush kit, and i'll probably give it a try this weekend. i know thermostats are prety cheap, so if i do decide to get a new one, is there a specific one that will keep the engine temp cooler?

thanks!

 

[rileyrs]

the relay is pretty easy, just get the right replacement and pop it in after pullin out the old one.

sounds like the stat might be bad. id replace it since they are cheap, and can fail out of the box.
ford recomends 195 i think, but if you wanna run cooler a 180 should do it you can also get 160, but thats really cool, and probly will kill your fuel mileage.

 

[boggs1227]

i installed a 180 a couple of months ago and it does well .i would not put a 160 in at all ( way to cold ) .180 is about the lowest you can put in one .compared from 198 ( what i had before ) the 180 and the 198 both make my guage read right at "n" to "o" .

mpg with the 180 .... hardley a difference compared to the 198 stat i had in
(maybe 1 mile lower mpg wise) .

i was told that i really should not run a 180 because of mpg's , may clog the cat over time from a richer fuel being burned , and 0/2 problems .... basiclly the only reason i put in a 180 was to help the transmission live a little longer and try to keep it as cool as possible .

in a another month ( or 2) i'm going to take the 180 out and put in 190 for winter time . i think i was told or read that a stats are rated about 15-20 degrees more than what they say ...so i'm thinking a 190 will be plenty good for winter driveing .

have you purged the air out of the system ? cause i had a bad stat and the plunger that the valve is connected to some how came loose and went side ways on the unit ( basiclly it poped out of it's guide ) but still then the only reason i found it was i was wanting to install a colder unit but still i never had a cooling issue and the temps did not jump around .

 

[Danimal86]

thanks for the info! I'll go pickup the relay and a new thermostat this weekend and give it a try. is there any trick to putting a new stat in?

 

[Danimal86]

well, i ran out of time this weekend, so i didn't get a chance to swap the thermostat, but i was able to flush the radiator, it seems to be running cooler than before, so we'll see how she does!