2002 Focus Overheating.. Running out of Ideas!!!
 

Hey guys.. I have a 2002 2.0 ztech.. After a few minutes of driving temperature goes to the red and stays there until I pull over and let it cool off.. there is water boiling and steaming out of the reservoir.. Engine performance Is fine.. No white smoke.. No oil and water mixing.. Took the thermostat off the car and realized someone had gutted it.. replaced that. Even replaced the housing. Then went to the water pump.. It was fine but replaced it anyways. Then flushed out the radiator with a garden hose. Got alot of orange sludge out of it.. A whole lot.. Water runs through clear now.. Bled the air out. Then went ahead and tore it down and replaced the head gasket. Head is not warped or cracked. Heat is working fine so I don't wanna go under the dash and mess with the heater core.. Fans seem to be working proper..What in the heck could be wrong with this thing???

Something you can try to help locate the problem. Get a hold of a cooling system pressure tester and see if the system will hold pressure as specified on the cap.
Sometimes when someone replaces the belt they change the routing and the water pump can be turning in the wrong direction. Does the lower radiator hose have a spring in it to prevent collapse from suction created by the water pump?
Don't feel comfortable with the engine having reached a high temp several times, engine may be also full of the "orange stuff" and may need to be really flushed out.
When you checked the head , how did you check for cracks? Visual alone is not that reliable.

Belt's on right and pump is turning right... I had the bottom radiator hose off when I did the flush and didn't remember seeing a spring but I'm not sure I even looked.. Yes we just looked at it really good visually.. If the block or head had any damage wouldn't it show some pretty major symptoms?

Not always. As you know heat causes things to expand and you may not see any cracks while it is at room temp. Best to have a shop Magneflux the head unless its aluminum. Some engine shops have a fixture to mount on the head and pressure test it. .

1 of the radiator hoses might be going closed with you while your driving ! check the hoses and see if there is a spring in them ! try this too ! after ir gets hot shut it down and feel the fins on the radiator next to the fan but watch your hand from the fan ! if you feel cold spots on the radiator fins then the radiator is stll clogged in some spots and needs to be flushed again ! this time back flush it from the bottom and let the dirt come out through where the cap goes ! it sounds like poor circulation to me !

Gonna go through all hoses and the radiator itself again.. Also going to check and make sure the fans come on properly.. will let you know what happend tonight

First thing we did today was go into test mode and checked the temperature until the fans was supposed to cut on and both did... Next we flushed the radiator from bottom to top. We got a bunch more of that orange rust out of it.. Later we checked the hoses and one of the small 2 small hoses on the reservoir (the one that goes to the top of the radiator) was completely clogged up with debris.. Flushed that out.. Now there is no more over heating issue.. Also a ton of orange stuff came out of the radiator once we got it running again.. Guessing we worked it loose enough to finally come free. Gonna wait till morning and flush it back out again.. Running fine now though other than a little bit of bubbling still in the reservoir... guessing from air or all that sludge that just went everywhere.. water temp steady just below halfway

i have the same problem with my 2002 ford focus overheating you fixed the problem i have had three mechanic an no one can find out what is wrong please help!

I replaced the thermostat which was bad, Replaced the head gasket that im not sure it needed.. replaced the water pump that it didnt need, Took the radiator out and it was totally screwed, replaced that, replaced the reservoir cap, Had a clogged hose going into the reservoir, fixed that...It's fixed now but I could'nt tell you what exactly fixed it lol!!