I was up in the woods this weekend cutting firewood. I had a 1/2 cord of dry Tamarac (western larch) in the bed and nothing in the bed of the pichup box trailer. I was only headed up to the four mile mark for another tree. at about the 3 mile mark I looked down and my temp was reaching the line right before the red. Now my as soon as everything cooled down I checked it all out. All the fluid levels were great. At first I thought the problem was because there wasn't enough air flow. This was until I was on the highway pulling a hill will about a cord and a half and the temp started to climb again.
What could my possiblilities be here? I have already wondered about the thermostat and posibly the clutch fan(if that is what I have on this rig). I don't know a lot about it yet. I am still learning this rig. I know the hub and bearing assemblies are expensive when they go TU. I need some help on this one fellas. I can't afford to have the engine go.

Thanks,
Steve

 

You know I had the same problem last summer. I replaced the t-stat and did a flush on the coolant and all is good now.

 

Yeah you might just have a thermostat sticking. I would start there, their not much money,just pop a new one in and see what ya got.

 

I had a similiar problem a couple of years ago. I routed the engine vent tube to behind the cab, cleaned all the oil buildup off of the fan, and built this hose attachment to flush the radiator from the back to the front. If you drive off road much, you'll probably get as much dirt and grass out as I did. Fixed my problem.

 

Yeah... I'd guess that you have oil build up on your radiator from that dang oil breather bottle leaking and getting all over everthing. I was up in the woods 2 weeks ago and noticed the exact same thing with my truck. Very high coolant temps and I was empty. Just on a very long climb.

I'd pull the radiator and clean it with some simple green and do a complete flush and new T-stat.

 

Good advice guys.

Once you known the the CTD's quirks (tendency to cake over the rad from the puke bottle, flaky T-stats, etc), then you'll find these problems are pretty easy cures.

Long term, you might want to look at relocating or extending your crankcase vent hose.

JH

 

Remove your rad and clean it with a de-greaser, then relocate puke bottle, that should cure your overheating problem. If you notice temps still run a little high, then change out your thermostat.

 

Friend of mine had the same problem after loaning his truck to a friend, after chasing his tail and replacing a lot of stuff he noticed his friend had put a piece of card board in font of the rad.

 

I hear ya.
Did the same thing last year , cardboard in the winter,
overheating in the summer

 

Fan side.....



Front side....



This "Overheat" will creep up on you. I've done about a dozen this year. The ONLY way imho to do the job is to remove the radiator. We use degreaser and power wash the radiator. You have to actually hit the fins at different angles to get all the gunk out. After it's clean we give it a shot of wheel cleaning acid to get rid of all grease and cleaner residue and rinse. They look like new when they go back in. With the radiator out it is also a good time to power wash the fan and front of the engine.

 

Thanks a ton for the info.

Last year, I was having an overheat problem. Don't know if any of you guys have ever driven on I-26 across the Tenn - NC border, but last year I was towing my boat (about 3500 lbs) and had to stop a couple of times. All I can tell you is it's steep. Anyway, I tried a new thermostat and even changed the coolant, but still had the problem on the way home. My buddy told me about this post. My radiator looked pretty much like this picture and I didn't think it was really dirty enough to cause a problem. I didn't know what else to do so I pulled it out and pressure washed it like he said. Man, there was a lot of crud that came out of that thing.

Just got back from vacation again this year and didn't even come close to overheating even with 85+ degree temperatures! Ran 2500+ RPM for several minutes at times climbing various mountains on my trip south. Warmest it got was approx 205 - 210. Then I could hear the fan kick in and it came right back down to 190.

I'm not much of a mechanic compared to most of you guys. It was really a simple job. Hardest part was getting that freakin' draincock open and closed.

Thanks again.
Bull Durham
2000 Ram w/ 189000 miles