Alright, when I first got my truck I picked up the autolite 3923's as recommended pretty much universally. However, since then I have removed my A/C and clutch fan. Since then (especially now that its winter) my truck was running ice cold until i covered up 95% of the radiator. Would going to the 3924 plugs help? I'm going to assume it would help it heat up, but what about power and mileage?

 

Its not the spark plugs...lol.

Its the clutch fan you removed. The clutch fan bolts onto the water pump pulley causing drag, when you remove it, the water pump becomes more efficient causing lower temps. Why are you worried about your engine being cold? As long as it gets to 180+ and doesn't stay in openloop you have nothing to worry about.

The PCM will actually tell you when the engine is cold for to long with a Check Engine light. If your not getting that light don't worry about it.

 

Even with my radiator 95% covered it takes quite a while to get warm. My mileage definitely reflects this. With the radiator blocked my needle rests right around 180, but never above. However, I am pretty sure when I had my gauges out, the temp got bungled up to read high.

 

Its Winter, mine takes forever to, luckily i have remote start and let it idle for 20min and im good to go nice and toasty.

Due to it taking so long to get to temp in the winter the PCM dumps fuel (open loop) to get the engine to temp faster running it rich longer = worse fuel mileage.

What temp thermostat do you have?

And the only way your temp sensor would read to high is if the sensor itself was messed up or the wires got pinched and is getting a short. The Temp sensor is located in the front of the intake manifold where the coolant flows through. Thats where the temp on your gauge reads from. If you pulled the gauges out of your dash that would not mess anything up unless you didn't plug them back in right, otherwise they wouldn't even work then.

To be honest, what is the problem your having and want to fix? Bad fuel mileage? You have a 4x4 318 with 3.92s heavy v8 gas guzzling truck. Go buy a Electric piece of crap if you want better fuel mileage. I have a 22gallon tank and it runs dry at 20gal and at that point im a little over 240 miles.. meaning i get about 12mpg and thats mostly hauling major *** like 80-90 on the highways and constant petal to the metal from stop light ti stop light.. if i baby it im lucky to get in the low 14s...

What are you getting?

 

I haven't checked in a while but on average it is about 13mpg with mostly suburban(?) driving doing ~50mph.

 

That's about as good as it gets. At least you're not driving a Buick!

 

As good as it gets? Then could someone explain people in R/T Durangos getting 20mpg?

 

I get about from 9-11 in my 5.9 QC all suburban

 

They are lying out there ***.... simple *** that... 20mpg in a v8 5.9 magnum DURANGO... hahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahaahahah

 

Put your fan back onand install a new thermostat.

Don't want to get into the "hot" and "cold" spark plug issue.

It's got nothing to o with temperature