I have a 2006 Dodge MegaCab 3500 4X4 with a diesel engine. Recently I went out four wheeling in some snow, mud, and traveled through some water. However to my surprise while four wheeling my engine began to overheat, engine cooled down once I came out of four wheel drive. Could anyone tell me why that happens, and is there anything I could do to avoid this from occurring again.

 

how hard were you working it??? high rpm's and load at low speed (like spinning doughnuts) will heat things up quick... could you hear your fan get louder as it got hotter? could be the fan clutch going.

 

I wasn't hitting it to hard, thats what surprised me the most. I couldn't hear the fan come on.

 

Were you running in 4 wheel low or 4 wheel high. I could see it doing that in 4-wheel low, if you were rocking it and sliding, etc. Low is just to try and slowly get out of trouble or help winch yourself out.

 

I was in four high, I did go through some water

 

thanks for your assistance

 

there is no mistaking your fan on full bore sounds like you the fan may not be kicking in...