The reason I'm leaning radiator instead of head gasket/head is that it only gets above the halfway point when I'm idling or climbing a hill on a hot day. Everything it's doing is reminding me of my old modified BMW with the big engine and the little radiator - not enough cooling capacity. I've had blown gaskets before, and they tended to overheat no matter what the driving or atmospheric conditions.

That and I would rather buy a $120 radiator than a $450 set of heads.

Honestly, I paid less than $2000 for this truck and whatever I have to do to it will be worth it since it is cosmetically and (other than this) mechanically perfect. Seriously. No rust, no scratches, it looks nearly new. Heck, the camper shell even came with working locks and lift arms!

 

Mine is a lot like yours, only it's a 96. Fairly high mileage and it's been requiring some repairs. Besides doing all the top end stuff listed previously, I had a fairly bad oil leak down under that required replacing the rear main seal. That was a huge job, the front axle/differential had to come out, the motor mounts were replaced, and I had the steering gear taken apart for a bit (the rubber boots on the tie rod ends were split--there are four.) So I've replaced the rear main seal, replaced all the seals on the front differential, replaced the motor mounts, did the plenum gaskets, valley pan, thermostat & housing, cleaned the throttle body and the IAC, replaced the water pump, and put on all new hoses.

A motorcycle jack is very helpful in reinstalling the front axle.

And still I've got less than $500 in repairs.

Like you I do all my own work. I know what's been done, I clean as I go, and when I screw up, I do those repairs and learn from my mistakes. Dollar Tree's LA Awesome Orange Degreaser works very well for cleaning, btw. & Paint remover on pesky gaskets.

If you do anything to the throttle body, be very careful disconnecting the TV cable--it runs from the passenger side of the throttle body to the transmission and serves to kick down the trannie when you are passing. The connector on the throttle body is plastic and is quite brittle and prone to breaking--I ended up drilling mine out to get it to reconnect.

 

So I did the compression test... All cylinders were within 2pts of 150. Guess I'll be checking radiator flow and water pump next. A thought - it looks like there's a trans cooler right in front of the radiator... Is it possible to block radiator flow such enough to kill cooling ability? And I'm not talking about the AC - this is between the AC and the radiator.

 

Partially plugged radiator: yes. Water pump: only if the impeller is so worn it can't pump coolant. Transmission cooler in between condenser and radiator: no, that's where I have mine and I have no over heating problems. It is possible to block the radiator enough to inhibit cooling but not with normal things like a condenser and trans cooler, A plastic bag or other road debris, absolutely.

 

Well today I did what I should have at the beginning of this - I went for a nice hot drive and then felt the radiator. Only about 1/4 of it was even warm at all. New radiator should be here in a couple of days, then we're back to cool as a cucumber.

 

called it...lol

the bottom half of the radiator was probably burning hot?

 

Driver's side, actually.

 

New radiator is in... Turns out it has a Mopar aux oil cooler mounted on the radiator, that was the only kink in the installation... Now we're running nice and cool. Strangely, it's quieter than previously and oil pressure is up.

Glad I didn't immediately believe the "cracked head" comment and dump the truck

$80 + $15 worth of coolant and we're back in business.

 

Diagnosing a truck 600+ miles away is difficult going off of symptoms. Even when I have a customer in town describing their problem to me, it means nothing over the phone. I need it in my bay to touch, listen, test, and manipulate. That's why I said to take it to a shop you trust and have it properly diagnosed. Kudos on being able to figure it out and being correct. Not just throwing parts at it until it's fixed.

 

where'd you get the radiator from?