OK, some of you may remember that I towed my 18' dovetail trailer on a trip from Oklahoma to Canada, Ohio, and back in March. The big problem is that my truck kept blowing coolant through the overflow. I've bled the system until I am blue in the face, and it still gets hot. Today, I pulled the old t-stat out, and dropped both it and a new one in a pot of boiling water. The result: both opened as designed. So, I drop the new t-stat back in, and as I am tightening one of the bolts to the housing in place *SNAP*. Great, so I now pull the intake to take to my machine shop to have the bolt pulled.

Since I have everything open, I am thinking of going the extra mile and installing a Flo-Kool water pump, which is supposed to be a high capacity pump. I can't think of any other reason why my truck runs hot. In the winter, the heater barely puts out any heat when temps are below 45ยบ.

Any other suggestions?

 

if theres a leak, then it will overheat. pressure testing the cooling system is a good idea. if the leak is coolant going to the oil or combustion chamber then your coolant level will go down and create an airspace that get compressed instead and delay the opening of the thermostat. check for milky oil, or water out the tailpipe

or if you put a pressure tester to the rad and start the engine and if pressure starts to rise then combustion gases are getting in the coolant system.

if rad cap seal/ mechanism is bad then hot coolant that goes to the overflow container does not get sucked back in the cooling system when the temps go down creating a vaccum, which makes a coolant level low

or your clutch fan is on its way out? do you have a clutch fan or electric? if its electric then wrong temp setting or bad probe.

I know a lot of people here hates the idea of puttng those radiator stop leak product like bar's leak with rhizone?? pellets. but I did mine just to stop a leak I cannot find. after the treatment I flushed the system to get rid of the treatments icky color and added new coolant. and now my cooling system tops at 195 deg. exactly, no more problems of temps going up over 210 then down below 195 or low coolant.

then lastly if it is your pump then there is no coolant flow on the rad filler neck once the thermostat is open.

hope this helps...

 

I've done a few dodges that the impellers on the water pump rotted off and caused overheating.

 

no impellers... no flow... or decreased flow.. = no cooling and overheating.

i say pull the heads off do a new head gasket and check out the water jackets. they might be plugged up. do a complete flush of the coolant system too.

ok that's a lot of work for little pay out.

DO THE WATER PUMP AND COOLANT FLUSH. that might just be the issue.

 

Alright. This past weekend I replaced the fan clutch and shocks on my ride. The old fan clutch was bad (turn off the engine and the fan would still spin), so I ordered a new one from Rock Auto. I could only afford the stock unit, although I wanted to get the Severe Duty clutch (which I may do down the road).

Anyway, I am not certain this has made a difference. I am wondering if the missing pressboard pieces that go on either side of the radiator have anything to do with the truck getting hot. The old air-cooled VW's are like that. If all of the engine tin is missing, the engine will run hot as the air-flow is not being routed properly.

Another interesting bit of trivia I learned from a Canadian friend this past weekend is that his company used 5.2L Rams for worktrucks, and he said every time they had to tow a trailer, the cooling system would boil and blow coolant out of the reservoir. I intend to get my system pressure checked, but I seriously doubt I have any blockages since my engine was built from the block up 10 months ago. Anyway, my friend stated that they installed an auxilary cooler on the transmission, and the truck stopped blowing coolant. This has been one of my initial theories from the first time I towed with my truck, in that the transmission is running too hot.

 

If the trans runs to hot it will throw a code and u should get a dash light saying trans temp. but yes get a trans cooler they do help as i just installed one my self last week... as far as those flaps go to direct the air too the rad i left mine on , on their for a reason , myself i put on a severe duty fan clutch on , doesnt matter what i do the highest temp i got was jus above the 200 mark....

 

If you don't have the factory tow package, DEFINATELY add the tranny cooler. Don't tow without it. I'm curious tho regarding the no heat in cold weather. If the engine is running that hot the heater should chase you out of the cab. I'd suspect blockage; maybe something leftover from the engine rebuild that got pushed through the system.

 

That's what I would have thought, but I've flushed everything, and as far as I can tell, I have excellent pressure.

 

Well as far as no heat, try this.
Warm the engine, turn on the heater, wait a moment and feel the two heater hoses. If one is hot and one is not, then the heater core/hose(s) be plugged. It's possible to have a plugged component like heater core and still have good radiator pressure.
WC

 

My 96 is a pain to bleed the cooling system ,so what I do is leave it sitting overnight witrh the rad cap off then in the morning look to see if it's down.You may have to do this a couple times.With mine if there's an air pocket in the system I will here water trickling in my heater core when I rev the engine.