My truck: 1999 F-150 4.2l V6 4x4 5-speed Manual.

Today I was driving to Raleigh, about 25 miles from where I live. I got about 3 quarters of the way there and my temp gauge went hot and my gauges lit up. I pulled into Autozone which luckily was right across the street from where I was.

I felt the upper radiator hose and it was unusually hot and it was rock hard. (that's what she said ) I called my local mechanic who replaced my lower ball joints, and he said that could be a sign of the thermostat getting stuck. So I replaced the thermostat in the parking lot, and I turned around and went back home. When I was about 2 miles from home the temperature went back to hot, gauges lit up, upper hose was the way it was before.

I let it cool down and I pulled the upper hose off of the radiator and started to flush it out with the garden hose. The thermostat was opening and closing properly. So I pulled the bottom hose out and put the top hose back in and it started VERY slowly coming out of the bottom port on the radiator.

So my conclusion is that the radiator is stopped up and I need to replace it. Please throw some info my way. Thanks.

 

cool, thanks for the help guys.