Engine/Transmission (1998.5 - 2002) Clean your radiator!!!

[Ramtough]

I have seen a few posts about grease collecting in the 24V radiator. Recently, I was starting to see higher & higher temperatures while towing, especially in hot weather. I had done my best to watch the radiator looking closely at the front & back every time I serviced the truck. It did not look to me like there was anything wrong with the radiator. Finally, at 100,000 miles I decided to pull the radiator "just in case. " The photographs show what we found on the outside of the radiator that could not be seen with it in the truck. The inside of the radiator was relatively clean. I estimate the radiator was over 50% occluded.



Recently completed a trip with my 11K 5th wheel in 95+ outside air temps. The water temperature that had been running around 230 never rose above 180.



I count myself lucky that I did not burn my truck up.

 

[BDR]

Good greef, what a mess. How did you clean it, spray it down?

 

[Ramtough]

I sprayed it with Gunk on both sides, let it sit for 30 minutes and cleaned it with a pressure washer.

 

[CPG]

The pattern of dirt sure shows the efficient effect of a fan shroud on our trucks.

 

[Gary - K7GLD]

... AND, if you don't do something to ELIMINATE the oily film from the engine blowby bottle that CAUSES that mess, you can look forward to doing the cleaning all over again at some future date! :-laf

 

[PC12Driver]

... AND, if you don't do something to ELIMINATE the oily film from the engine blowby bottle that CAUSES that mess, you can look forward to doing the cleaning all over again at some future date! :-laf

Not likely. My bottle was tossed shortly after I bought the truck, and my radiator looked just like that after a couple of years. Pollen, pollution, humidity, bug guts, etc. are more likely the culprits. That fuzz on the front of the radiator didn't get there because of the bottle. Once it's stuck there the only way to get it off is to pull the radiator.



I'm not saying that getting rid of the bottle won't keep things cleaner, just that it's not as big of a contributor as you think it is.

 

[Gary - K7GLD]

Not likely. My bottle was tossed shortly after I bought the truck, and my radiator looked just like that after a couple of years. Pollen, pollution, humidity, bug guts, etc. are more likely the culprits. That fuzz on the front of the radiator didn't get there because of the bottle. Once it's stuck there the only way to get it off is to pull the radiator.



I'm not saying that getting rid of the bottle won't keep things cleaner, just that it's not as big of a contributor as you think it is.

Could be - and probably DOES hinge a lot on where and how a truck is used - still, at well over 50K on mine, and LOTS of varying driving situations, both sides of my radiator and A/C are clean as new, never been touched - but I did relocate my blowby bottle:



#ad

 

[Ace476]

I had the same issue with my 2002 125K miles. The temp is fantastic now.

Relocated the bottle but agree with the comment about the fuzz on the

frontside of the radiator. The local car wash did a fantastic job.

 

[2broke2smoke]

same here ...



i did mine at 150k ...



i changed out my water pump ... 30$ at napa ... learned my lesson from woodsrat and the indy waterpump incident



and my stock thermostat had chunked off a bunch of rubber ... the napa piece was far better construction ... i got crucified for posting my opionion about the napa thermostat but both my '91 and '01 had thermostat problems at 125k ish ... and the napa piece was still perfect at 275k when i sold her ...

 

[jkalchik]

I pulled my radiator out 10 days ago, with a worse pattern than shown above. Mine has been in for over 100k, and the truck had 94k on when I bought it.

I do need to move the end of the breather hose yet.