Almost as hot as my Ram...

[musclefixer]

Okay, Here goes nuthin...

Took out the travel trailer for the first time last week to Havasu.

It was about 118 during fri/sat. The air conditioner got lots of work.

The thing that concerned me was on the way up the Chiriaco summit, pulling my approx 9000lb. trailer, I saw the "idiot light" turn on and tell me to watch my guages... . Yup, the temp guage was just about to hit 240 before I had to downshift another gear, into 2nd as I recall... . The egt's were safe, but I noticed the clutch fan didnt turn on till about 220deg.....

I've never let the truck get this hot before, I even installed a 160 thermostat in it a couple months before my trip.

The grade is about 6 or 7% and about 15 mi to the summit...

Even some of the big rigs were passing me up...

The only good thing about this, was it was a good excuse to inform the wife of our new BOMBING needs...

Am going to order the TC and VB from Bill K. soon, and the transmission guage and cooler are also going in soon.

This in preparation for the engine mods.....

Please let me know folks, are these things that happened to my truck normal??? or is the small hy turbo housing also to blame for the high temps???

All comments are greatly appreciated.

Jesse.

P. S. Sorry for the long post.

 

[Evan A. Beck]

Fortunately, the ISB has a feature in the ECM that will de-rate power when the engine temp gets too high. Not sure what that temp is, I'll have to check my Cummins electronics manual.



By any chance, do you have a piece of window screen behind your grille to catch the bugs? If so, GET RID OF IT. I saw a study once where it was found the screen restricts air flow up to 25%. Really kills the efficiency of the intercooler, radiator, trans cooler, and A/C condenser. Cleaning a few bugs is a small price to pay for a cool running engine.

 

[musclefixer]

Evan,

Was thinking about the bug screen route, but if this is the way the truck is going to run all the time, then no way will I put the screen on the truck... .

 

[hammong]

I'm gonna go out on a limb here, but I'd say with 118 degrees ambient air temperature, a 9000 lb trailer, and 15 mile long 6-7% grade, I'm not overly surprised to hear about your "hot ram" condition.



I know that the hydrostatic fan clutch in my truck will engage WELL before the truck gets to 220 degrees. It's possible that your fan clutch is defective, and you weren't pulling enough air through the radiator to keep things cool.



Another clue in your message was the air conditioning load on your truck. The A/C condensor is right in FRONT of the radiator, and consequently if there is a high heat load in the cab (high temp outside, bright sunlight, dark colored vehicle, etc) -- all that heat that is "removed" from the cab is placed directly in front of the radiator. It may pain you (literally!) to do so, but next time you find yourself in a similar situation, you might want to turn the A/C off and open the windows. It might make as much as 10-15 degrees difference in coolant temp.



Lastly - I didn't see a signature on your post. How old is your truck? If you've had the radiator coolant replaced, and filled it up with antifreeze and TAP water, you may have introduced enough minerals (hard water) to line the interior of your aluminum radiator, hence reducing it's cooling efficiently tremendously. The only way to really tell is to pull off the upper radiator hose and look inside. If you see a lot of white flaky residue on the interior fins, you need a good flush & fill to remove it, and fill it back up with distilled and/or deionized water and fresh antifreeze.





Greg

 

[OILBRNR]

I'd say something is wrong with the T-stat that you put in. I've never had a problem pulling here in AZ no matter what the outside temp is. Esp. coming back from Page AZ where the temp can be over 100 and the elevation is above 5k feet pulling a boat up some significant grades.



If you were maintaining 40mph+ the fan doesn't move any more air than the flow coming through from foward progress. If you were going slower than that, perhaps the clutch on the fan is bad.



Not normal either way.

 

[musclefixer]

Greg,

Yup, the fan didn't turn on till about 220 deg. As a matter of fact, I had never even heard the fan turn on until then.

The truck is an 01 and only has about 12k mi. , so I haven't changed the coolant in it yet.

Yes, the a/c was off well before I hit the grade. It was 118 where we were, but going was about 90 deg.

Oh yeah, at one point, I was going about 35mph in second just to try and get the needle to go left on the temp guage.



Think I need to have the dealer take a look?

Should I put in the original 190 deg thermostat back in?



Let me know guys.....

Thanks a bunch.

Jesse.

 

[Ram4Sam]

Put the 190 deg tstat back in. With that 160 in there, it opens too soon and doesn't leave the coolant in the radiator long enough to cool it down properly.



Sam

 

[Powder Extreme]

Diesel's need to have heat to run effecient too cool or too hot are both bad. 160 is too cool you should put the other thermostat back in. Your fan WILL pull quite a bit more air through your radiator than running at even 75mph when the clutch engages. I have a Horton fan clutch and can verify it makes a big difference keeping the motor cool with the fan on when climbing. If after you put the 196 t-stat back in you are still running hot, have your dealer check it out. My factory fan clutch would engage approx 210 degrees on the gauge but since the factory gauges aren't really that accurate anyway, I wouldn't worry about yours reading 220. Your dealer can check the clutch and tell you the exact temp it will engage. The small turbo housing definitely isn't doing your egt's any good, and will become a problem when you start to BOMB. Hope this helps!



Jerry

 

[RichB59]

overheating

So far I haven't had any overheating. It gets real hot here and I tow the hill from Hoover Dam up to boulder City. One trick I did learn in my Dakota if it started overheating turn off the AC and turn on the heat full blast the heater will help cool the engine. Not real comfortable but better then a boil over. I agree with the (no bug screen idea) I keep a small brush under my seat and clean the fins when I wash the truck works good.



LOL Rich

 

[Archive]

I do not believe that "bug screen" syndrome for 1 minute. I have run a bug screen on my 92 and on my 99 cummins. No problems with overheating at all, but I have not been in 118 degrees. I have been in 100 degree weather, towing 11,000 pounds of hay. In these situations, on long grades, I turn off the air conditioner just like the Highway signs suggest, to prevent overheating.



CLEAN the bug screen once in a while!

 

[Bob Wagner]

Don't blame the HY35

If your egt's were in check don't blame the HY35 for the high coolant temperatures.



The HY35 will only cool the exhaust gases



BTW You will see a big performance difference once you do the DTT TC & VB www.dieseltrans.com



I agree with Rob on the bug screen (keep it but <b>Clean</b>it !

 

[SmokinJoe]

Originally posted by musclefixer

the fan didn't turn on till about 220 deg. As a matter of fact, I had never even heard the fan turn on until then.

The truck is an 01 and only has about 12k mi.

I wonder who makes the clutch f on the fan? Looks to be a poor quality job. Why? Because mine runs all the time. I start the truck and it sounds like a tornado under the hood. The grass is moving to and fro around my truck. I think that is why my mileage is low...

 

[TowPro]

I had this problem with my 98, it would only overheat while towing, it progressivly got worse until I could not tow 55 MPH on the flats. Now it was time to look into the problem.



for testing I removed the thermostat, put it in a pot of water on the stove with a thermomiter in it, and turned on the gas.



Watching the temp rise, I hit 190 and the thermostat opened! What the heck?, so I put the NEW thermostat in and did the same thing. When the new thermostat opened, it opened real wide, turns out the old thermo was only opening 1/2 way, which would restrict the coolent flow enough that the truck would start to run hot when under load.



When running empty, It would never even reach 190 deg!

 

[tobaccogrower]

musclefixer:

i have a 1999 3500 with about 44,000 miles on her. this past march, i was towing a 8,000lb boat back from Key Largo Florida. when i drove the truck to florida, i had no hi-temp problems. when coming home, as soon as i had the trailer on the back i was overheating real bad! i couldn't go over 50 mph on the highway(70mph speedlimit) without the truck overheating. the temp outside was about 90 deg. after 100 miles i stopped at a buddies house and took out the thermostat..... still overheated so i checked the fan clutch(watch the fan when the truck is shut off. the fan should only spin about one or two times!)mine spun about twenty times before stopping! three days later, DC put in a new clutch and i havn't had a problem since. check your clutch, it might be the problem... . good luck... . james... .

 

[fmj]

I make this run three or four time a month. When hauling a tag-a-long, I never seen these type of tempatures in my '01. The above suggestions are giving you good information. One other thing that you might check is the amount of bugs imbedded in your coolers. I know that there have been times that I have had to wash off the bugs when I arrive at my place on river and when I get back home. I was on the road hauling a light trailer when you were, and as I remember there was a mess of butterflies hitting the truck. I make sure that I keep the coolers and radiator are clean. I also agree with the bug screen causing higher temperatures. I have tried these and always experienced higher temps by about 10 to 15 degrees when the screen is clean. My . 02 cents worth.

 

[Texas Diesel]

If I am not mistaken you can get a thermostst from

Cummins in 160/180/190 ratings. The 190 is for winter use. In my opinion, the 160F thermostat is simular to running without a thermostat. I tried it once as an experiment and the truck (Dakota V-8) would overheat on I-17 North of Hell (Phoenix). The thermostat definately helps by allowing the water to sit still long enough to cool down. As far as the bug screen being the problem, in my opinion, wrong. The "article" that I read on window screen was retarded. They took a factory new radiator and measured the air flow then put window screen on and repeated the measurement. The screen decreased the air flow about 24% I think. What they didnt do was to measure a factory new, window screen equipped radiator against a bug clogged radiator. I have been putting window screens on radiators on every new vehicle for 15 years and using distilled water /antifreeze and have never overheated or had one fill with calcium. I would put a new 180F tstat in and the next step would be the fan clutch.

 

[rob10858]

check the seal at the water pump for leakage. i had a couple of 96's that did the sme thing under load in hot conditions and after having them flushed and refilled, they did not improve. one day i looked closely and saw just the faintest hint of green around the front of the pump housing. there it was, the seal was just barely leaking causing the problem. with our new 2001. 5's the temp gauge never, repeat never, goes above 200, even with loads of 17000 lbs on grades of 6 to 9 percent. we havent seen temps like 100 plus yet, but 96 degrees on a 12 mile 7 percent grade tells me that should equate to the same type of ambient temps. the other thing that ive noticed is that the engine fan on our new trucks stay on longer and engage sooner than our older trucks . the fan may rob hp but they are designed to do a specific job. every time i hear mine engage, i feel better knowing that the folks at cummins know what they are doing. by the way, kill the ac on long hard pulls, i dont care what kind of dsl or gas motor is doing the pulling, its not good to give it something else to draw power and fresh air away from the motor. this used to be in the owners manual on the older ctds. on long hard hot pulls disengage the ac .

 

[danandamy]

One more opinion.....

It was a really hot day and a new truck and with 12,000 miles it isn't even broken in yet. Make sure the radiator fins aren't packed with bugs (which I doubt with so few miles) and just drive it for awhile. I would probably stay with the factory thermostat for the simple reason that everything in the PCM is programed around the motor running at that temp. Anyway, let her break in a little more before you get too worried, you've got lots of warranty left. Aside from the transmission upgrades, however, you had probably better hold off on any bombing until you know 100% this issue is resolved. You don't want to give the dealer any excuse to void your warranty.

 

[C1B1DIESEL]

I would have the fan checked out, put the 190, stat. back in.

Normal water temp can be 100 degrees above ambient air temp.

118 degree day, can = 218 water temp.

My . 02

 

[musclefixer]

Thanks for all the info guys...

I am fortunate enough to live around the block from a Cummins shop. . Think I'll put a new 190 thermostat back in, and take it for a short road trip. Next will be the dealer if the therm. won't do it.

Damn, I hate taking the truck in for any type of stuff... . Oh well

Jesse