Hello all!

I'm in a bit of a bind right now. To describe my issue there are two hoses going into my thermostat. 1 goes to the radiator and 1 goes somewhere behind the engine towards the firewall. The hose that goes toward the firewall splits off into two (1" and 1/2", I think). At that junction the hard plastic that joins them together broke in my hand after I noticed that all my coolant was leaking out of it. From what I can tell the hard plastic that joins them is molded into the hose and is all one piece. I'm not sure what that hose is called and the guys at Auto Zone were less than helpful. Does anyone know what that hose is called, where the two ends go, and where to get said hose? Maybe I can cut the hose and put in a T coupling of some sort? My worries about putting in a T junction is that I'd have to cut more hose than I'd like to get past the hard plastic bit that's "molded" into it. It's in my driveway now and obviously I can't drive it anywhere because the coolant will just pour out and it will overheat. Any help will be VERY much appreciated. Thank you. Hopefully I posted in the right section of the forum. If I didn't describe it correctly please ask for more specifics. I'm driving my wife's car right now and she's pi$$ed cuz she is "stuck at home".

 

OK so on the 4th I went ahead and just cut out the hard molded bits of hose and threw in a T junction I got from NAPA. Had to also get a longer hose from thermostat to T junction but all seems to be working perfectly so far. Best part- wife gets her car back which makes life much more pleasant!! While under there though found out what all the noise was when going over bumps and potholes. My sway bar links lost their bushings and they are just rattling around. Will try to replace those with Energy brand this weekend. Along with the sway bar bracket bushings.

 

i am going thru this right now. can you verify that the hose sizes are 1" and .5"? and what was the part number for the hose you bought? thanks for any help you can give.

 

I am having this same issue on a 2001 Ranger 2.3, as well. I have a ridiculous leak from the back of the engine. Not sure if it's the head gasket or the hose you speak of at the back of the head. I can't tell where exactly it's coming from, and from the top side, I still can't tell where it's coming from. I looked at from under the truck, but no luck. I am about to pull the head, and handle it that way, by replacing the head gasket, and the hose at the back at the same time. Any thoughts?

 

By the way, ranger-laz, the Ranger is in Tampa, if you'd like to come help work on this thing. LOL

 

Same thing on my nieces truck. Can't see anything, cant find info. Leak is above a tee that we think was put there when truck was "repaired" some time in past. Have receipt for tee and some hose clamps. Hayes book says coolant line to EGR which is in back by firewall. Brother is getting a small flexible USB camera to try and see what is happening. So two coolant lines are going ? in back of motor. On youtube I found a engine CAD simulation the was almost helpful and some guys long vid with just a few seconds of vid of back. Not much but something
We tried the usb camera but it was too hard to focus and get back there. Looked at vids on clutch replacement hoping they would put camera up so I could see egr. Can see something but don't know what.

 

I can partially help answer the "where's it go" question. Found this picture on a google images search.


Here's the website I found it on so you can read for yourself:
http://www.e30tech.com/forum/showthr...=103875&page=9

And just for shigiggles here's a picture of the piece we're talking about. And as you can see, mine is leaking also. Probably not as badly as yours - yet. It's partially obscured in the picture behind the IMRC valve.

 

Coolant leak. - Ford Ranger Forum
I found this tonight. Small hose is going to the egr. Big hose is going all the way around to the reservoir. I found pic of EGR valve at Autozone.com showing where hose would fit. Got estimate to fix of $600 today. If its just that small hose to EGR won't cost much for us to fix ourselves. Thanks for sharing the pics

 

Just changed out my thermostat. Heat in the cab started working again. Guess the computer finally started getting good signals from the thermostat and let the cab heater start working correctly.

But......as it were.....you fix one thing and the pressures start to come back up to where they're suppose to be and now my hose in that picture is pouring out on top of the starter and leaving hugh puddles. Have to put a gallon of water in it to get it home (8 city miles). Was thinking about cutting out that section and using a plumbing-T and elbow to replace it with something that will last a lot longer. Anyone done this yet?

I did notice there is a bunch of gray gunk in the bottom of my over-flow reservoir. Anyone know what that stuff is? Wasn't there before the thermostat swap...

Whoops.....just reread Ranger-laz's post. Time for a trip to NAPA.

 

Here are some pictures of how mine cracked open on the bottom side of the plastic fitting.

I dismounted the main wiring loom from the bracked on the intake manifold and pulled it out of the way.
I dismounted the IMRC valve and pulled it out of the way.
Then went to work with a pocket knife slicing and dicing my way to happiness. Truck had made me angry.

I cut out the fitting that is broken. Here's a what I found.


That's why my coolant was pouring out the bottom of my engine. The connection to the hoses were intact, but the plastic had failed. Its in a low spot, so as it leaks ALL the coolant will come out.

Going to Lowes tomorrow to make a pipe fitting that will handle the problem from now on. I'm not doing a plastic replacement. Gonna be metal pipe pieces. Permanent.

 

Just found this on RockAuto.com:

Have to give kudos to RockAuto for their picture method on the webpage. That's what enabled me to find this hose.

Motorcraft Part Number KM4720 Coolant Recovery Tank Hose
$55 as of this post - 04 April 15

Link will take you to the 2002 Ford Ranger 2.3L section of the RockAuto Page, then go into Cooling System, the Coolant Recovery Tank Hose
http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/rafr...u5kof3pq355nm3



I also figured out the sizes you'll need for pipe fittings are 3/4 for the big line going around the back, and 3/8 for the small line going to the EGR - if you going to go with a home remedy.