Hey everyone I am having some serious cooling problems for quite some time now with my 2001 Ranger 2.3 duratec, 75,000 miles, and manual tranny. I have been searching the forums for a couple days now and havent found a real good answer but anyways when I drive my temp gauge climbs up real high almost to the H and then it drops back to the normal position and it fluctuates continually throughout this process. Alot of coolant is consumed in this process to the point where I am constantly topping it off ( Qt every 2-3 days depending on distances driven) Underneath the hood the Radiator is only hot on the top left corner the rest of it is dead cold where as the upper hose, heater core hoses, and where it comes off the engine are all piping hot. The lower hose is cold. Sometimes both hoses feel like they are real firm but most of the times they are the opposite and can be squeezed easily. In correcting this problem I have done a flush with the best chemical i could get and changed the thermostat with a brand new one from the dealer ( $50 whole housing) and run it several times with the cap off the reservoir to get rid of air bubbles. The resevoir cap seems to be holding pressure well. It is also noteworthy to say on particular long drives sometimes i smell antifreeze and a little steam will come from my vents however there are no signs of the heater core actually leaking which makes me lean to this might be a side effect or different problem completely. I do have adequate heat. I have monitored the coolant level while the truck isnt running for a few days and it does not leak and while it runs I have seen no physical signs of a leak. Also I recently changed the oil and the waste oil was not brown or milky. At this time I am leaning towards a radiator due to the fact it doesnt get hot eventhough I am skeptical becuase I flushed it and it isnt physically leaking. Anybody who has any better knowledge on this situation please post. Thanks in advance

Do you notice any white smoke coming from the exhaust while driving? How about any puddles of coolant in the engine bay, or underneath the truck when it's parked?

no white smoke while driving or puddles

Hmmmm, if you can live without heat for a little while. Bypass your heater core by joining the two heater core lines. See if you lose any coolant while it's bypassed.
If not I'd say headgasket, even though their is no white smoke and the oil isn't milky.

Update I just bypassed my heater core which was definitely shot. This seemed to improve circulation a little bit now the bottom of the radiator as well as the top left corner gets hot im going to replace the radiator tonight and see what effect that has on the system. All this at 72k not to mention the multi-function switch went and one of the brake shoes delaminated causing me to redo that whole system, I definitely think my ranger days are done after i go through this one.

I bypassed the heater core and installed a new radiator today I'm still kind of concerned about it, going to drive it tommorrow and we'l see where were at

Any update?