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Performance Upgrades - Maintenance - Modifications - Problem Solving - Off-Road - Street Trucks. Covering the Explorer, ST, Sport, Lincoln Aviator, Sport Trac, Mercury Mountaineer, Mazda Navajo, Ford Ranger, Mazda Pickups, and the Aerostar. Featuring H.I. - Human Intelligence.
The temp goes up and down while driving it goes from about a 1/4 to a little over half way up. Sometimes the engine will be hot but not according to the gauge the only way that I know this is because I can hear it bubbling. It also used about a half gallon or less of coolant about every other day. The engine idles smooth and there is no hesitation when I give it gas. What's the issue with the gauge and how can i find out where the coolant is going?
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Engines don't use coolant. They lose it. You need to figure out where it's going. Check the oil to see if it looks milky/brown and do a careful visual inspection for leaking hoses, clamps, and gaskets (you may need to clean your engine first, to make it easier to notice where the leak is). You may need to check the engine for leaks at different times--sometimes it'll leak when it's hot, sometimes when it's cold, sometimes it'll be fine during a trip, start leaking 5 mins after you park, and stop 10 mins later.
If it's running fine and there are no obvious external leaks or signs of a head gasket problem, it may be the lower intake manifold gasket. They seem to last about 100-150k, so if yours has never been replaced then you might suspect that.
As for the coolant - I had a tiny leak in a freeze plug. Thought it was the intake until I looked very closely. Installed a copper repair plug because of location. There are also issues with the lower intake, as stated by lobo411. There are also some rarer cases of cracked heads.
Some OHV V6s have issues with:
The one wire sender, the thermostat, and the gauge itself. There is actually a TSB issued long ago to change all of that and install a special bypass hose to reduce steam formation. Notice that your engine don't have a bypass hose, rather there is a small machined hole in the intake.
I don't believe I'm losing any coolant, and coolant is nice and green....
I replaced my sender and stat years ago, never solved the problem 100%.
My gauge don't stay in the center either, never affected anything.
The temp goes up and down while driving it goes from about a 1/4 to a little over half way up. Sometimes the engine will be hot but not according to the gauge the only way that I know this is because I can hear it bubbling. It also used about a half gallon or less of coolant about every other day. The engine idles smooth and there is no hesitation when I give it gas. What's the issue with the gauge and how can i find out where the coolant is going?
I would worry much less about the gauge at this point than about losing 1/2 gallon of coolant every other day. That's much more than what an engine in good shape loses in a year! I am assuming that the coolant is not going into the oil pan, because the main bearings would have been destroyed by now. So it's either leaking out or entering a combustion chamber. Did you notice a sweet smell in the exhaust? If so, you may want to remove the plugs and look for one (or more) that are super-clean. If no signs in the exhaust, it's probably an external leak. May not be obvious because it's blown by the fan or evaporated by dripping on some hot surface. Renting a pressure tester and using it on a cold engine would be great help in this situation.
Edit: probably not your case, but a bad radiator could let coolant mix with transmission fluid. Take a look at the transmission dipstick, just in case
You need to figure out where all that coolant is going. That's the reason your temp gauge is going UP/DOWN. It's because there' not enough coolant in the engine. It's got to be going somewhere.
