Ford Mazda Mercury Radiator TRQ RDA82609

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In this video, we're going to be working with our 2001 Ford Ranger 4.0 liter V6. We're going to show you how to remove and replace your radiator, as well as how to properly fill and bleed your cooling system after you finish the repair.

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Here the items you'll need for this repair: Phillips screwdriver, 7-10mm socket, 3/8 drive ratchet, socket extension, flat blade screwdriver, 10mm wrench, adjustable wrench, 36mm wrench, torque wrench, and a clutch fan removal tool.

Remove the radiator cap at the top of the radiator on the driver's side. Simply push down and turn counterclockwise. Remove the four 10mm bolts securing this plastic cover underneath the radiator. We're going to use a socket, ratchet and a long extension for this. We put our vehicle on the lift to make it easier to show you, but you should be able to do this job with the vehicle on the ground.

You may need a flat blade screwdriver to remove the plastic push-pins securing it in, but usually you can just grab both sides and pull down. Set up a drain bucket underneath your drain plug, which is located on the passenger side of the radiator at the bottom. We'll open up the petcock with a 19mm wrench. Don't open the drain plug all the way, as coolant will come out the end where the plug sits in. We'll crack it loose until it starts draining and wait for the radiator to be completely empty.

Reinstall the petcock by hand, just wipe that little bit of drip off the bottom there, remove our drain bucket. If you're doing this on the ground or on jack stands, you may want to leave the drain bucket under there to catch any excess coolant that comes out of the system. We're going to place our low level drain bucket underneath the truck, while we finish the repairs.

We're going to remove this cover over the throttle body. Use a small Phillip's head screwdriver to remove these two screws, and a seven millimeter socket and ratchet for the bolt in the back. Remove the cover from the intake.

Using a flat blade screwdriver, we'll loosen the hose clamp on the throttle body side of the intake boot. Remove that from the throttle body. Disconnect the breather line, push down and release the connector from the map sensor, and hang that somewhere safe, so it doesn't get caught anywhere while we're working. Push these two tabs in on the back of the air box, lift up and remove this whole assembly from the vehicle.

The upper radiator hose is located at the top the radiator on the passenger side. Normally, there's a spring-style clamp here which you would remove with a pair of pliers. Ours has been replaced with a screw style clamp, so we'll remove ours with a flat blade screwdriver. Simply loosen it up until you can get it over the radiator hose, twist the hose to release it from the radiator and place it out of the way. I like to pinch them somewhere with the top edge facing up to prevent any excess coolant from leaking out.

Remove the two 10-millimeter bolts, one on either side of the fan shroud at the top with a socket and ratchet. Once the bolts are out, lift up to release the fan shroud from its tabs and hang it back over the fan. Now we'll remove the radiator overflow hose as well as the 2 transmission cooler lines from the side of the radiator these are located on the driver's side. Expansion tank hose simply comes off. We'll lay that off to the side. We're going to use a 16 millimeter wrench to remove the two transmission cooler lines. It's very important this is a hollow nut here. They call it the flare nut. It's very important that when we remove this. You want to make sure that the nut is rotating around the hose and that this line is not twisting with the nut. Otherwise, it's going to break, make this repair lot more in-depth.

We've also placed the drain bucket underneath to pick up any transmission fluid that leaks out. The other transmission line is located just below the upper one, about three-quarters of the way down the radiator. While that drains, we'll remove the two 2mm bolts at the top of the radiator on either side. Now our radiator is free at the top. We'll remove the hose at the bottom and be able to finish taking it out of the truck.

Using a pair of pliers, we'll compress the clamp on the lower radiator hose which is on the driver's side here. Slide it back and out of the way. Twist it to release it from the radiator. Again, we have a drain bucket under here still to catch anything that comes out. Remove the bracket at the bottom for the transmission cooler lines, and place it off to the side. With everything disconnected, simply lift up, make sure our radiator doesn't get snagged on anything. Bring it right out of the truck.

Here we have our old radiator that we removed from our truck and our new part from 1aauto.com. As you can see, these parts are nearly identical. There are some minor differences with the brackets here that shouldn't interfere with going in. We have the same hooks at the bottom for our fan shroud, as well as the same speed nuts at the top there to bolt the top into. Same hose locations, same petcock and two new fittings for our transmission cooler lines. If you need a new radiator, this new part from 1A Auto is going to go in direct fit, just like your original equipment and fix you up right.

Carefully insert the new radiator into the truck. Be sure not to hang it up on anything or bump the fins into anything that's going to damage them. Remember, we have those two arms on the side that have to sit in to their brackets. We have to remove this air dam here from our old radiator. Simply pull it down and snap it onto the new one. Reinstall the two 10 millimeter bolts at the top of the radiator. Tighten the bolts down with a 10 millimeter socket and ratchet.

We'll reinstall our transmission cooler lines. You tighten them down the 16 millimeter wrench. We'll lift up on our fan shroud, set it into its slots. Reinstall the two 10-millimeter bolts at the top on either side. Run the expansion tank hose back across the top of the radiator. Reconnect it at the filler neck.

Reinstall the upper radiator hose and tighten the clamp back down with a flat blade screwdriver or use the method with the pliers if you still have the OEM spring-style clamps. Reinstall the bottom hose onto the radiator. Now I have replaced the OEM style spring clamp with one of these screw-type band clamps simply because I don't like the spring style. They lose their tension after a while and they can rust out. They're difficult to remove and install.

You have to get pliers in there and they loosen up and create leaks at the end of the hose which are really annoying to fix, especially after you just got done working with this system. These screws style clamps can be done with just a flat blade screwdriver. They're easier to work with and they stay nice and tight if they ever loosen up, we can just put a couple of turns on them to seal up the end of the hose again. Tighten this up with a flat blade screwdriver. Push the transmission line cooler retainer back into its hole at the bottom of the radiator. Reinstall the bottom cover. Remember, it has the plastic clips to help you line it up.

Set the three tabs on the vendor side if the air box, into the three hole at the back of the air box. Push the tabs down in until they snap. Reconnect your map sensor connector, reconnect the breather line, and reinstall your intake boot onto the throttle body. Tighten down the hose clamp with a flat blade screwdriver.

Reinstall the engine cover. We’ll tighten down the front two screws with the Phillips head screwdriver and the rear with the 7 millimeter socket. Reinstall the bottom cover. Remember it has the plastic clips to help you line it up. Then install the four 10 millimeter bolts with the socket, ratchet, and extension. There are two on each side.

Any time this coolant level has been dropped, you'll have to bleed the system the way you see here. We're going to refill it with a 50/50 mix of the coolant designated for our truck, as well as distilled water to get the proper mixture. We'll then fill the radiator through this funnel back up to the top level, run our vehicle up to temperature with the fan on the lowest setting and the highest heat we have to make sure that that air, if built up in the heater core, circulates through fully and removes any air pockets from our system before we test drive it and confirm our repair.

Make sure the petcock on your radiator is closed if you opened it to drain the system and always use a funnel and a drain bucket to prevent any spills when filling the system. After filling the radiator completely, start the vehicle with the radiator cap off and a drain bucket underneath. Set your fan for the heat to the lowest speed and the heat to the highest setting blowing out of the vents so we can monitor the temperature coming out of the heater core. While the vehicle is running, you'll notice air bubbles coming out of that filler neck. Be sure to keep an eye on that and keep the level up top throughout this process. You can see here that our vehicle needs more coolant.

This means that our vehicle has probably gotten up to temp and that thermostat is open allowing the air inside of the block to be pushed out by the coolant in the rest of the cooling system. With a quick check inside the vehicle we can see that our coolant temp gauge on our dash has gotten up to the normal operating temperature, so we know our thermostat is open and allowed the coolant to circulate into the block, pushing that air out. Now we just need to wait for the level to stop dropping so we know our coolant is full and check that we have proper operation of the heat to be sure that the heater core has had all those air bubbles pushed out as well.

Now that we have heat coming out of our vents, the bubbling has stopped and our radiator has maintained its level for a little while now. We’ll shut the vehicle off, and remove our funnel. Level stayed right up top. We'll reinstall our cap. The level in our radiator overflow tank, which is located here, hasn't changed so there's no need to touch that, but you can top it off if necessary. Now we'll wash down any spilled coolant off of our engine and test drive our vehicle. Always be sure to monitor your cooling temperatures any time you have to bleed the system on the initial test drive to be sure the vehicle doesn't overheat.

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