Hi everyone, hope you all are doing good.

My dad's Dodge Ram 1500 is having the following problems and We do not understand why is happening.

The hose that is connected in the top of part the radiator and goes connected to the main entrance of the water pump gets very squeezed after running the truck for a while. The temperature in the dashboard gets kinda high but not to the point to overheating. When the truck is forced to a speed up it will overheat instantly, when you speed it up slowly it will keep a decent temperature.

Today we took the radiator out and cleaned it along with the hoses but it is still doing the same thing.

Any suggestions or advice? Thanks in advance

 

When you say "very squeezed" do you mean it's expanding, or that it's collapsing?

 

It collapses, for example, when you put a straw in your mouth and you put your finger in one end then on the other end you start sucking it. Well the hose is doing the same thing

 

as the engine cools after shutdown the coolant contracts and the coolant in the overflow bottle is sucked back in...if the overflow bottle hose has become plugged the vacuum has no where to go and ends up compressing the weakest link which in your case is the upper rad hose..a bad rad cap could also cause this as it regulates this..

 

Well, when the engine is cold, the hose goes back to the normal shape, when the truck is running that the engine is wamed up, the hose will contract itself like something is vacuming it from the water pump

 

Hello Fellow Ram Drivers..... This is my first post but I have been following the board for a few months since I picked up my 96 1500 after retiring my Dakota of 19-years.....
I am gonna take a shot at this one and hope I am right. Your radiator hose needs replaced. I had this happen years ago. As it heats up the hose becomes more supple and will actually collapse to the point that it will start to overheat because the coolant is not circulating enough. You could try just a stock hose but I beleive you may be able to get a heavy duty hose that has a metal coil (looks like a giant spring) inside to help with that problem. Also does the hose look like it is the correct hose for on the truck? Maybe someone used a wrong hose and it is twisted or pulled under stress and that may add to your problem.... I hope this helps......

 

Time for a new thermostat.
Link to cooling system flow

http://sundevilauto.com/auto-diagrams/cooling-system

 

overheating is very bad - so you need to fix it or don't drive it. high temps lead to blown head gaskets and cracked heads.

i'd start by replacing t-stat. 195 or 180, doesn't much matter. test it in a pot of water before install. get the good Stant SuperStat, not the cheapo $5 one.

while the hose if off, flush the engine and heater core.
if the radiator hoses are old, i'd replace both.
if you're really industrious, remove the block drain plugs behind the engine mounts and drain the rust deposits and sludge. these can be really hard to get ahold of and remove without rounding off. i used a lot of pb-blaster and vise grips.

test fan clutch by spinning it. it should have some resistance. also when you shut off engine, it should stop spinning within a couple of rounds. if it freewheels, it needs replacing.

and finally - it comes down to your radiator. if your top radiator hose is nice and hot (180-195) and the radiator (and fan clutch) is working right, then the lower hose should be cool enough to hold. if not - replace radiator, as its stopped up.


edit - if the lower hose is collapsing under normal driving, its and indication that the water pump is sucking hard and the radiator or something, is stopped up. the hose is the weak point and it collapses under the low pressure. your upper hose is likely swollen with high pressure.

 

Thanks a lot guys for your responses

I'm gonna add something else, the thermostat was removed because the engine was overheating even more, when the radiator was taken out to see how well the water pump was doing its job, but there wasn't any movement of water when we did this. It was like the water pump wasn't moving at all (there was some water in there still).

merc225hp, thanks a lot for that diagram, do you have another diagram that shows the function that the fan and water pump have? like in that you posted but in a closer view.

 

a couple of ways you can test water flow -

disconnect lower radiator hose, stick garden hose in the top of the radiator and see if you get good strong flow draining through. if it just sort of trickles through, its stopped up.

assuming radiator is flowing - disconnect upper hose at the rad, t-stat out. reconnect lower hose, garden hose in top of rad. crank engine and observe flow. you should have good strong flow coming out the upper hose. if not, water pump is bad.