Attention: TDR Forum Junkies 
I'm pretty sure that smoke blowing out around the hood and coolant squirting all over the windshield is not a good thing. It happened again. My dad literally had brain surgery just over a year ago so I can't be upset with him. He wasn't watching the gauge and when I glanced at it it was around 231 degrees and he wouldn't pull over. I told him to switch the fan on and he flipped the switch and figured that would do the trick.
After the boiling over I found that a wire for my thermostat switch was loose when the fan re-engaged after wiggling a wire. I had my dad start the engine with the fan on and the quick shock of going from super hot to cool must be what caused the lexan to explode. Pieces of it went into the engine bay and road, etc. Every section had stress fractures throughout. The plastic company we bought it from was confident the 1/4" lexan would resist any damage from impact and could tolerate any engine related heat. We proved it wrong.
We thought we'd cleared out all of the broken pieces of lexan and continued, thinking things would continue to be fine. When the shroud was still working the hottest we'd measured was 218 so we felt pretty confident in the new shroud's cooling ability.
To make the story short we had just pulled out of the pull off we'd slept in, driving slowly past a bison when a tractor trailer came barreling on our tail through the heavy fog. My dad floored it and we heard a loud noise. My dad continued to drive this way for almost 3 more miles, too afraid to pull over with the truck so close to our trailer. I found coolant leaking not from the cap, rather out the radiator where a piece of lexan had gashed it wide open.
I was stranded on the side of the road for almost an entire day in British Columbia before getting pulled by an old Ford to Coal River Lodge. It took a few days for parts to arrive and lots of money and work but we have it driving again. I ordered another radiator that had to be flown overnight to Whitehorse in the Yukon, then driven down to us on a Greyhound at about 10
m. I'd gotten Yukon Radiator to work with the sheet metal shop there and had some 1/8" aluminum pre-rolled and sent along with in one large package.
Took pretty much all day to get the new radiator in and fabricate the new shroud. Tools were very limited. Got aluminum in one eye and anti-freeze in the other. Tons of fun. This new radiator is only a single core whereas my old one was a dual core. That has me worried. But the new one from Thailand has aluminum caps instead of plastic like my old one, which the radiator dealer thought might improve cooling efficiency. The fins also seem much tighter. Being slimmer made it easier to install.
I learned that the Dodge radiator is a few inches wider but is cross-flow instead of vertical flow. Anyone know how much of a difference that should make if any? I looked closely at an '06 that stayed here at the lodge. His was also a single core, very thin. Said his runs at 200 all the time and will see 220 pulling big hills.
Ambient temperature during our test drive was only 51 degrees and we were unloaded so we couldn't get much of a load on the truck. Got the coolant up to 154 while driving up and down mountains but with the fan manually locked on it had dropped to 134 by the time we got back to the lodge. It was running very cool so we think we're ready to start towing our huge load again in the morning.
My fan took some damage from the shrapnel. I don't think any other pieces will break off and I'm hoping the cooling ability isn't too affected. Doing my bottle test again it took 2,500 RPMs for the fan to pull it to the grill. I think it was pulling harder sooner than that before. I did make this shroud a bit larger as well, just to have a bit more clearance. I noticed on the '06 Dodge that the blades nearly touch the shroud, virtually no gap. Interesting. Obviously couldn't do that with bolts in the way here. Hopefully these pictures will show some detail. I still don't understand how a thermostat that is already fully open at 180 can cool any better than no thermostat since the thermostat has no "brain" to close it off again and regulate flow. Perhaps having just a single core will produce the same effect and reduce my coolant temps anyway.
I like the look of all of the shiny aluminum, I think it looks sharp. The tiny wire going into the upper radiator hose is the fan switch probe. First time I installed it it leaked. This time we used silicone to help it seal. No leaks anywhere on our test drive. Can you believe it cost $20 just to borrow a phone to order parts? This has been my most expensive birthday and one of the least enjoyable.
After the boiling over I found that a wire for my thermostat switch was loose when the fan re-engaged after wiggling a wire. I had my dad start the engine with the fan on and the quick shock of going from super hot to cool must be what caused the lexan to explode. Pieces of it went into the engine bay and road, etc. Every section had stress fractures throughout. The plastic company we bought it from was confident the 1/4" lexan would resist any damage from impact and could tolerate any engine related heat. We proved it wrong.
We thought we'd cleared out all of the broken pieces of lexan and continued, thinking things would continue to be fine. When the shroud was still working the hottest we'd measured was 218 so we felt pretty confident in the new shroud's cooling ability.
To make the story short we had just pulled out of the pull off we'd slept in, driving slowly past a bison when a tractor trailer came barreling on our tail through the heavy fog. My dad floored it and we heard a loud noise. My dad continued to drive this way for almost 3 more miles, too afraid to pull over with the truck so close to our trailer. I found coolant leaking not from the cap, rather out the radiator where a piece of lexan had gashed it wide open.
I was stranded on the side of the road for almost an entire day in British Columbia before getting pulled by an old Ford to Coal River Lodge. It took a few days for parts to arrive and lots of money and work but we have it driving again. I ordered another radiator that had to be flown overnight to Whitehorse in the Yukon, then driven down to us on a Greyhound at about 10
m. I'd gotten Yukon Radiator to work with the sheet metal shop there and had some 1/8" aluminum pre-rolled and sent along with in one large package. Took pretty much all day to get the new radiator in and fabricate the new shroud. Tools were very limited. Got aluminum in one eye and anti-freeze in the other. Tons of fun. This new radiator is only a single core whereas my old one was a dual core. That has me worried. But the new one from Thailand has aluminum caps instead of plastic like my old one, which the radiator dealer thought might improve cooling efficiency. The fins also seem much tighter. Being slimmer made it easier to install.
I learned that the Dodge radiator is a few inches wider but is cross-flow instead of vertical flow. Anyone know how much of a difference that should make if any? I looked closely at an '06 that stayed here at the lodge. His was also a single core, very thin. Said his runs at 200 all the time and will see 220 pulling big hills.
Ambient temperature during our test drive was only 51 degrees and we were unloaded so we couldn't get much of a load on the truck. Got the coolant up to 154 while driving up and down mountains but with the fan manually locked on it had dropped to 134 by the time we got back to the lodge. It was running very cool so we think we're ready to start towing our huge load again in the morning.
My fan took some damage from the shrapnel. I don't think any other pieces will break off and I'm hoping the cooling ability isn't too affected. Doing my bottle test again it took 2,500 RPMs for the fan to pull it to the grill. I think it was pulling harder sooner than that before. I did make this shroud a bit larger as well, just to have a bit more clearance. I noticed on the '06 Dodge that the blades nearly touch the shroud, virtually no gap. Interesting. Obviously couldn't do that with bolts in the way here. Hopefully these pictures will show some detail. I still don't understand how a thermostat that is already fully open at 180 can cool any better than no thermostat since the thermostat has no "brain" to close it off again and regulate flow. Perhaps having just a single core will produce the same effect and reduce my coolant temps anyway.
I like the look of all of the shiny aluminum, I think it looks sharp. The tiny wire going into the upper radiator hose is the fan switch probe. First time I installed it it leaked. This time we used silicone to help it seal. No leaks anywhere on our test drive. Can you believe it cost $20 just to borrow a phone to order parts? This has been my most expensive birthday and one of the least enjoyable.
