Hi all , am new to this forum and this is my first ram truck ( 2006 ram hemi 1500 4x4 QC ) , few month ago i bought my truck and they changed the radiator coz it was leaking , since then everything was ok the temp gauge marks on middle and some times little little bit after the middle and when the stat opens it cools down little bit below middle and so on , now days the weather temp is 86f ++ , so when city driving the temp gauge marks on the middle and little bit over BUT when i go long trip and climb a hilly curves and step on the truck the temp reaches 3/4 and stays for more than 5 minutes like this after i finish the hill , so i checked the rad and its ok the stats ok , so i made 2 (3mm) holes on the stat frame (stock stat opens at 203F) and now city driving reaches the middle mark , but on the same hilly curves it also reached 3/4 but it cooled down in shorter time than before drilling the stat , i ordered jet 180 stat to try it , any ideas can u help me with ??? And which rad cap is better the 16 LBS or the 18 LBS ?

 

I would suspect the fan clutch or a partially clogged radiator. Leave the thermostat at the stock temp.

 

My rule of thumb is the first thing I do is feel the hoses, then I'll burp the system mainly because you can do those without taking anything apart. I've found burping the system (purging any air bubbles) does the trick quite often.

If those don't reveal a problem or do the trick, next thing I'll do is take out the thermostat and let a pot of water come to a boil with the thing sitting in it. If the water starts to bubblin' and the 'stat ain't open, it's the stat.

After that, it's time to start diggin'...

 

Fan clutch is ok radiator is ok but i found out that its about 2 cm smaller than the original and there is a gap between the fan plastic cover and the radiator so i blocked this gap with a piece of metal may be now the fan will suck the air through the radiator !! ( didnt find original rad in my country not even used one )

 

Any harm if i use the jet 180 thermostat ? i read that a lot of ram hemi owners are using the 180 instead of the stock 203F

 

Worse gas mileage for one.

 

Any issues other than worse gas mileage ? i read that it makes better performance !

 

What it will do is force the PCM to dump more fuel, so basically you get a small performance gain at the expense of a small fuel loss.

I have one, but I installed mine in because the wideband said I was a bit lean with a CAI, long tube headers and a performance tune that advances timing a good bit. The slightly richer mix that the cooler thermostat provides brought me back up to a good number. I also live in the deep south, so heating issues in winter do not exist for me.

I would go to one if you can confirm you run lean due to mods.

I guess it couldn't hurt if you live in a climate where it is always warm. But again, I don't see a real benefit unless you are lean to start with. It will open a bit sooner to start cooling the engine so it'd give you a little head start on cooling if you lived where it was HOT in summer.

I would stay with the stock temp if I did a lot of short trips in the truck (where the thing doesn't heat the oil up and sludging can result), or if I lived in the north, where it may take forever for the heat to build up to sufficiently heat the cab.

In a case where the engine temperature is running significantly hotter than normal, this would be a band-aid. Forget about the thermostat and find/fix the actual problem.

This is another mod that was ALWAYS beneficial in the old days, but not so much now where the engines are computer controlled and the PCM is optimized for the stock temperature...

 

Thanks for the explaining , i didnt find any thing wrong except that the radiator is one or two cm shorter than the original i filled the space between the radiator and the plastic fan cover and i noticed that the temp is little bit down maybe coz now the fan sucks the air through the radiator only after filling the space with a peace of metal But i still dont know what is the normal temp for the truck ? is it normal on heavy hilly road to reach 3/4 if u floor it and then within 5 minutes after finishing the hilly road it cools down to above the 1/2 mark and when continue driving it drops to 1/2 mark ? so coz of the radiator is shorter than the original i thought i will put the 180 stat so the temp will be lower than it is now . in summer here the weather temp is between 94 and 106 F

 

Yeah, you could try the cooler thermostat, it won't hurt anything, but if you're going up to the 3/4 mark, the thermostat opening 15* sooner is probably just gonna buy you a minute or two until the temps reach where they are going to anyway.

If you can't find anything wrong, and I don't know if the radiator being slightly smaller is enough to cause the issue, there is a product made by Royal Purple, it's called Liquid Ice. It basically has additives in it that will cool better than just a 50/50 coolant mix alone as well as some that help break down any rust or other contaminants. I've used it in the past with good results, it's not going to make a night/day difference but I've found it will keep the engine temps down an additional 10* or so.
Comes in a 16 oz. bottle and you should take 16 oz. directly from the radiator and poor this in. It's not terribly expensive, over here at least. I think retail is around $14.95 a bottle and the last one I bought was about $12 at the auto parts store...