Hello everyone! First thread here so I apologize in advance if it's a bit disorganized. I have a 2001 Ram 1500 with the 5.2 318ci v8. It is rwd only. The odometer is just over 130k. I'm having an issue with overheating which really started happening all of the sudden. I start her up and let her get up to operating temp (put a 185 stat in her about 6-ish months ago). The truck warms up but doesn't stop getting hotter until the needle is peaked at 210 and the CGs light comes on. I immediately turn the truck off and start checking under the hood. There is steam seeping through a pinhole on the top right corner on the front side of the rad. I topped off the coolant reservoir with bottled water. The only part of the system I found to actually be hot though was the hose going from stat to rad. Rad was cool to the touch everywhere I checked. Rad cap was also cool to the touch. I immediately assumed it was a bad stat so I swapped it out again. This time for a 195°F. I got the stat in, put a bottle of Bars Leak in the radiator, topped off the fluid in the reservoir and started it up. Got up to 195° but again it didn't stop climbing. I'm totally stumped. What do you folks think it could be?

 

Radiator clogged, passages clogged, water pump going out or failed. You could start by flushing the system to get all that crap bars leak stuff out. That stuff is bad.

 

The bars leak u put in in my opinion made a bad thing worse. May have been bad rad or pump now it's full of stop leak never put that in your truck it does more bad than good hope u get it fixed

 

plus 1, if you are thinking stop leak will help a pin hole on the top of the rad , you need a new rad, if you plan on keeping this truck, flush the system, put in a rad and pump, check that thermostat with a pot of water on the stove, make sure you install the stat the correct direction and then put in some anti mix an bulp the system. All of these things together will keep you engine from overheating, dont skimp if you need your truck to run.

 

I am going to pickup a new rad today and pull the stat out and check it as suggested. I had no clue the bars leak was that bad. I know several people that swear by it. I'll definitely stay away from it now though. I put a water pump on it back in July of last year. Could it really quit that quick?

 

It shouldn't...... Do the radiator first, and flush the system well. See how it behaves.

 

Have you checked to water pump?

 

My father was a big fan of Bar's Leaks. Everything the old man poured that nasty goop into would get along just fine when life was easy, but would overheat when challenged. Show it a hot day and a long grade or heavy stop and go traffic, and then more driver attention went to the temperature gauge than piloting the vehicle.

I do carry a couple of magic chemical fixers, a tube of AlumAseal and a can of flat fixer, but they're only for emergency use when the leaky thing must be sacrificed to a greater cause like avoiding grave risk to human life.

 

Even the can of flat fixer says to get it repaired properly as soon as possible.

 

Any stop leak crap is just plain bad.

If it A stop leak product plugs an open hole, then it is undoubtedly is gumming and clogging up everything else.
Even Valve stems should MOST DEFINITELY be replaced with the tire if a can of Fix-a-Flat has been deployed into that tire.

I would say do yourself a favor, and as preventative medicine while you are replacing the Rad, obviously don't forget to flush, and you should probably replace the waterpump too.

Mine didn't leak. Yet, In the process of looking for a scraping sound that I had tracked to the front of the block while thinking it might have been the alternator I dropped the serpentine.
Only then did I discover the WP bearing was shot. It had an inch or more travel from center in any direction.