Dropped the truck off with the mechanic this morning... he has a thermal gun he said he would check the temp. It's been running fine with the cool temps and not towing the boat. But if the outside temp gets in the 90's, just sitting in traffic, it runs in between the middle mark and the H mark.

 

I love how people in here continuously insult the 4.7 I have towed with mine and it is fine. The only improvement would be a set of gears . I think they put too tall a rear in these things and that is the problem. You have to keep in mind that 10-15 years ago most trucks barely had 200 hp and they worked. You can keep your hemi's

 

I'm not sure that I'm really insulting the engine, I'm not trying anyway. Just seems like a 4.7 with a towing package would include an extra liter of displacement in addition to all the other junk. No offense intended, just being comical.

 

If the cooling sytem checks out, then that actually sucks because it will still overheat.

I'd look into gearing it down some.

 

My 4.7 Dakota had the same symptoms at about 50K. It' never actually overheated, but would run halfway between normal and hot.
Drained the radiator and refilled and all was good. Might also want to consider a different mechanic if he really said the coolant "looked" fine.

 

Tried the thermal laser gauge all areas of the radiator where around 197 degrees or 198, took the truck into the Dodge service dept. today, will see what they say?

 

Got a call from the Dodge service dept. can't find anything wrong, everything checks out. they said everything was tip top, so I told them to go ahead and flush/change the coolant, so we will see.

PS.. the service manager at Dodge said as long as it was in the black that it was normal, but I have had this truck for 2 years and have never had it run that high.

 

Is the clutch fan working and is the coolent moving.

Also are you using the correct coolent. Should be the orange coolent

Jet Performance Chips make a 180 thermostat for the 4.7 so you can drop it from a 190 to a 180

There is one more thing that can make an engine run hot that gets overlooked and that is if it is running to lean.

 

Just a quick input, the "towing package" is nothing more than the hitch really. Nothing else. This coming from a Dodge dealer. And for those of you hatin on the 4.7 check out http://www.thefastman.com/index.asp and see what this guy did with just a 4.9. Not too bad.

 

If your towing something heavy and going up even a slight grade even with overdrive off sometimes you will have to use a lower gear and drive slower. ever see big rigs going up a grade fast nope and thats were you will see even the big rigs overheating on the side of the hiway, from the overworked motor.