Archived somthing's wrong

[jeepcjsrule]

My truck seemed fine driving to work this morning, however tonight i think there is somthing wrong the truck seems low on power. Driving down the highway at 70 everthing seemed normal but when i got on the back road to my house is when i noticed my temp guage climb to 190 going up a little hill i was at about half throttle and power seemed low.



the past few weekends i have been towing my 16' double axel trailer with 2 4wheelers on it down the highway at 75 without any problems and never say the oil temp guage go so high.





Any ideas?????

My truck is a 1994 2500 automatic 4wd withe 144,568 miles

totaly stock with the exception of the silencer ring missing.





Could a plugged cat be the problem?

 

[Extreme1]

If you're refering to the stock coolant temp gauge, it is most likely the fan clutch, low coolant (leak), or the jiggle valve.



Check the fan clutch first, that would show up in low speed situations. To check it, you need to look at the bi-metalic spring on the front of the clutch. Pop the outer tab of the spring out from the clip it is against (the pressure from the spring itself keeps it there). If the clutch is good, you should be able to rotate the spring about 45 (or was it 90?) degrees and it will stay.



When they go bad, the center of the spring and the small shaft it is attached to won't rotate anymore and the clutch won't engage. It will freewheel but it doesn't do much cooling that way.

 

[illflem]

Good tips Extreme, but running hot doesn't usually result in power drop. It could be your cat but usually the power drop will come on slowly as it plugs. My thought is a boost leak or wastegate stuck open. Now is time that gauges would be handy for pinpointing the problem.

 

[jeepcjsrule]

Extreme1, yea i ment the coolant temp guage



illflem, you are right about gauges, i will be picking some up tommorow.





thanks for the help so far, i still dont know what it is but i noticed two things that i am not shure about.



when i turn the key to start the truck the low colant light comes on and stayes on till i fire the truck up and then goes off is this normal?



second my transmission does feel like it might be slipping i really noticed it today when i got on the highway after work i accelarated up the on ramp and could feel it slipping and noticed the coolant temp climb when i reached 70 mph it went back down to normal.





could it be the transmission causing this problem?





i do appreicate the help you guys are giving me.

 

[Gary - K7GLD]

"could it be the transmission causing this problem?"





IF your truck uses an engine/radiator transmission cooler, could be!



If yer transmission is developing serious internal problems, it COULD be generating LOTS of transmission fluid heat that is then transferred to the engine coolent thru the transmission cooler - thus, higher than normal coolent temp, transmission slippage, and reduced power thru the slipping transmission... And you have about the right number of miles on yer truck to expect the transmission to need rebuild...



Keep us posted. .