Ok so here is the deal. Have owned the truck for 4 summers now. The last 3 I have had some kind of truck running hot, or coolant leak problem. Over the past threee years this is the stuff I have replaced...

Radiator
Upper and Lower Radiator hoses
Water pump bypass hose
Thermostat (twice)

Take the truck to work last Friday, and it ran about 190-195* on the way into work it was about 40* outside.

On my way home and 4o'clock it was now lower 60's outside temperature and the truck ran at 225* all the way home. Like it litterally got to that point 5miles outside of work and stayed there the next 18miles home.

Get home open the hood and no leaking coolant, no volcano like scenes from the coolant reservoir. Ok so I grab my little therometer with the red dot that you can put on areas and check temperatures. Hottest spot on the truck was the front of the motor at 200* the upper rad-hose was 180*.

So I'm ok wtf, so I knew the fan clutch was going to hell it had alot of play in it, so I put a new one in, and fiqure well I will put a new temp sensor and sending unit in, something has got to be wrong that it would be reading that hot and the motor is nowhere close to that. I also put in a new T-stat (180*) seeings how I was that far.

Took the truck out yesterday it was about 50 for a high here and the truck ran at 225* again! Bring it back out with the therometer and the upper radiator hose was at *160 and the front of the engine block was 180*. Now that is a 20 degree difference!!!

Why is it still reading that hot? Gauge in the truck junk? I know the needle bounces for th oil pressure and the volts... gas gauge if you you horse on it the gauge you can watch the gauge move. That gauge does some wierd stuff sometimes... getting worse as it gets older.

So is it safe to drive this thing you think? I mean she ain't puking her guts out and it isn't overheating, but its close to it on the gauge. I know the guy who I bought the truck from had replaced the water pump before I bought it, and it is not leaking.

Thoughts? Suggestions? I'm lost lol. I'm just going to throw this out there and please someone comment on this - the truck does not have an air dam, and I have chrome flames in the grill - could this be enough that the motor is not getting enough air. It's a long shot I understand but I don't know.

Any help would be great thanks.

 

Is it full of coolant

 

either the sending unit, or the gauge is going wonky. I don't think the temp sensor for the gauge runs thru the PCM like the ops does....... but, don't know for sure.... and the oil pressure gauge programming is just stupid.

 

yes it is full of coolant....

even after putting a new sending unit in? I mean I know its a possibility, who knows maybe mine was junk and the new one is too.

Something is fubar because the motor is not running anywhere near what the gauge reads.

 

Next step would be to hook it up to a reader and get some real time temps, if it reads normal on reader its the guage if it reads high on reader then you keep getting bad senders

 

lol one step ahead of ya Red!

Brought the scanner home from work and plugged it into my truck.

Results:
Temp gauge = 225*
Actual Temperature 181*

YAY! lol
Guess I have a reason to buy a gauge pod and some gauges now...

 

I had a similar problem in my dodge last summer. I bought a new temp sensor. The front sensor on the left of the intake. The one from autozone was too long and blocked some of my coolant flow. This caused my truck to run hot on the gauge. Not sure if that is your problem, but it's worth a shot. I just backed out my temp sensor a few turns so it's still nice and tight, and the truck runs normal now.