I noticed my truck heating up at a drive thru (idle) when it was a little hot outside. Didnt get to the red but was over half. Should I be alarmed? Should I proceed to flush my cooling system? Also my wife said when she followed me she noticed some bluish smoke (small puff) when I got on the gas. Not sure if the 2 are related. Any tips or advice would be great.

Normally the truck run less than half which is marked 210. So my guess is it runs around 180-190. But at longs stops in heat it goes up a bit.

If im not mistaken blue smoke is burning oil. Might wanna check that out just to be sure. Are you running low on coolant, is your water pump working correctly? Tstat working correctly?

How do you check the water pump? I am going to flush the radiator and start new. But I read a post about red, green or blue coolant and now I am confused about that. So I am scared to do that as well. I may just go ahead and replace the t-stat just because it is a easy fix to eliminate. I do plan to move to synthetic oil but even that was frowned upon here for high mileage engines...lol. But I guess my big question is how to test the water pump and test for burning oil.

Thanks for the reply

PS my truck looks just like yours (color wise). inus the fog-lamps in the bumper. Did yours come like that or is that a add-on?

I put universal green ,, sounds like ya might have a problem with yer fan clutch , just a thought, but usually when it only starts heating up on idle I think its a fan issue but not sure

Not sure how to test water pump, but foglights were part of offroad package. I have universal green too and it keeps my truck cool.

Hot only when idling has always been a fan clutch for me. I'm not saying that it couldn't be something else but I would change the clutch first.

Make sure the fins for the Radiator, AC condensor, and trans cooler(if you have one) are clean, also.

Thanks folks. I am going to flush the system and go with Green. Is there a certain brand I should get? Mixture?