hey all just looking for some input.....I have a 01 2500 4x4 w/ 5.9 360. I have had this truck for a few years with no problems. Truck is stock except for the 180 t stat. Truck is excellent when driving but when i hook up to my trailer the temp starts to climb at one point it shot up to 260, without trailer it doesnt even get near 210. I thought the problem might be the t-stat so i replaced it....same thing. I looked into the rad. and saw flow across it but it seems like its hot on inlet cool on outlet and gets worse the lower you go on the rad. I am thinking the problem is with the rad. but hate to spend $ if i dont need to. I was thinking about replacing the rad anyway but cant seem to find a good upgrade to the single core copper/brass unit. The trailer i hook up to is approx 7600 empty weight to 9000 gvrw, so i know i am probobly overworking the stock unit. I am also looking to upgrade the truck (it needs more power) just looking for a direction to go in. I have built drag and circle track motors before but never tried to build anything fuel injected/comp controlled or for low end towing power. I dont know if this helps but the truck has about 66000 miles on it.

 

fan clutch comes to mind , for towing ? change the gears .. hope your not towing with O/D on..

 

no i am not in o/d even if i wanted to if wouldnt stay there not enough torque at that low of an rpm. gearing you say? what would you recommend like i said it is a 4x4 so 2x's the gears i plan on staying with the stock alt size for tires i believe 265/75's

 

bump!

 

Have you ever flushed the cooling system with prestone or any other brand of flush? If you look down the rad and notice deposits around the rad fins, there's a likely culprit.

 

Oh yeah, when you refill it, use distilled water and you'll have less mineral deposits to worry about.

 

i looked in and the tubes looked clean (on the outlet side) and the coolant looks real good not all mucky. When i dont have a load on the truck is great!!!

 

Mine has the same issue, but with a smaller trailer (bout 4500lbs boat/trailer). I've only tried pulling it the once (since I buried it in mud) and it got up to around 225-230, empty it runs 180-200 all day long. I have a new rad, fan clutch, cap, and water pump so I'm not real sure what the issue is. Gonna flush the whole system and see what that does. If that doesn't work I'm gonna change out the clutch again and put in an HD clutch, these issues didn't start until I buried the thing in water and mud and burned up the original fan clutch.

Side note, when should you see sideways movement in the coolant with the cap off? Mine doesn't seem to move (level changes with throttle input), it just doesn't seem to have side to side movement. (maybe its just hard to see since the cap is on the corner)

 

sloram, do you have a separate transmission cooler. i'm just wondering if the transmission is dumping more heat into the radiator than it can dissipate.

does anyone think it would be a good idea to replace a clutch fan with a full time fan ? that would eliminate any slippage. downside ?

 

we were having the same problem with our truck...overheating when pulling our trailer...and sittin at a light with the a/c on....i tried the changing the stat...didnt help...added a electric aux fan didnt help...got tired of messing with it...went online...and bought a new 4 row radiator...new cardone high flow pump...new jet thermostat...new severe duty fan clutch...so i replaced it all...and put my auxilary fan back on....guess what problem solved...dont no which one helped the most..but i did not care i just got tired of messing with it...www.autopartswarehouse.com.....and yes it was a 4 row that was made for the 2500..but it works...