Will Smoke Screw Make Truck Run Hot

[farmall]

Will turning the smoke screw in cause the coolant temperature to raise in the truck? How about the starwheel? I know it will raise EGT's but how about the coolant temp. My truck has started running hotter than normal when towing a trailer. It is not in the overheat range, but it is towards the high end of normal range and I don't like that. It started this winter, so had my radiator flushed and installed a new non cycling thermostat. But it still gets warm like before I did that. My pump is not turned up that much and I am running a open air filter, so I know I am getting good air flow in. My next thing to do was replace the radiator. Do you all have any suggestions on what to try. Maybe backing the smoke screw and starwheel back out some? O, by the way when it gets warm, I can let of the go peddle and it will start to fall back down fairly quickly.



Thanks, Bill

 

[KBalzuweit]

I was told the smoke screw only has an effect on the launch of the truck and not at speed. I have my smoke screw in about 2 turns and the full power bottomed out against the lock collar. I have seen no raise in engine temp at all. I have towed a 30 ft trailer into the wind and my temp gage is barely over the quarter mark. When not towing it stays just below it. My truck has no other mods YET . My last truck was all stock and when towing it would cycle up to about 2/3 on the gage and back down. It seemed like the gage never stopped moving. This truck it goes to the points I said above and stays. May move a little on long hard acceleration or hills, but then returns right away.



Karl

 

[Midnite]

Do you have a transmission temp guage? Since you mention that it only gets hot when you tow, it could be that you're transmission fluid is getting pretty hot, and is raising the temp of your coolant via the little heat exchanger right below the exhaust manifold.



Something to check anyway...



Mike

 

[farmall]

I guess I should have said that it is mainly when I am pulling a trailer. Put if I have it in drive and get on it it will raise it up also, but not as agressivley as when towing. Bill

 

[formula]

Check in between your a/c condensor, intercooler, and radiator to see if there is leaves and other crap built up in there. This can cause your water temp to get hot in a hurry.



Also, as you increase the fueling of your engine for more power, a proportional amount of that additional fuel is dumped into the cooling system as heat. However, the smoke screw and starwheel settings should not matter in this case. The smoke screw adjusts the inital no-boost maximum fueling. The star wheel adjusts the rate of fueling increase in response to boost pressure increase. Once you reach 15psi or so, these settings no longer have an effect on fueling. And for that matter, once your boost pressure rises enough to overcome the afc spring force and move the control cone downward any amount, the smoke screw is no longer functional.



Sean

 

[farmall]

I am just basically grabing for straws. My EGT's are fine everything is clean. Plenty of power, no oil loss, coolant loss, no seepage around head, so I think the headgasket is out of the question. It just kind of started all the sudden. I am thinking the radiator is not flowing properly. I don't think it is my sending unit or my gauge, because it works to smooth, no real jerking actions. Everything is clean. Guess I will have to try it and see. Bill

 

[Greenleaf]

From my limited experience you haven't introduced enough fuel to engine with the lock collar on the power screw. Your not over-fueling it to raise temps at this setting. Maybe try flushing out radiator with quality cleaner. Did you advance pump up any? To much will heat her up. Do you downshift while pulling at any time? When it gets hot, drop a gear to relieve load and watch temp. Down means the rad is working the best it can which may not be up to par. Did you install a temporary mechanical guage? Test the accuracy of factory.

 

[JFitzgerald]

Farmall, I had a similar problem after increasing fuel, then towing heavy in the summer. Advancing pump timing brought coolant temp come back to normal, and also dropped towing EGT quite a bit.