TankerIP

Last summer I had a little trouble getting up from Alamagordo, NM through Cloudcroft. Only difficulty I have ever had. Getting ready to go that way again, and now I wonder what it might have been. In normal driving, temp is 185 to 190 almost constantly. Even in Texas summer heat. In winter a little cooler. Radiator and other coolers don't seemed to be blocked with crud.

But... coming up that climb...man, it hit 220, red light comes on, and warning ding, ding, ding. I stop, idle for a while, it cools back down to 195 and we go on, but then, the same thing again. I had to stop about 5 times before making it up over the top. You could feel the heat of the engine compartment.

Any suggestions? Why should flatland driving, even in the heat, be so easy, but my engine can't keep itself cool enough to get up the mountain with AC off, OD off and relatively slow speed (35-45)?

hhrumph

Check and make sure that the engine breather tube has been modified with the addition of a long piece of tubing to allow the vapors to be discharged aft of the fan vortices. If not, you need to do that. You will need to pull the radiator and use a steam washer (cleaner) to get the fins of the radiator free from the oil that is blown on them by the fan. You can't tell by looking at the rad. if the fins are pluged up or not. Go ahead and change the fluid and the thermostat (190 degree) while you are at it. Check the hoses for softness. You should be good to go after that.

klx650a2

Chances are your rad is plugged up from crank case breather blowing oil over the rad and dust collecting on it. the rad may look fine, but there is no way you can tell without pulling it. Its pretty easy to do. On my 2000, it looked completely fine until I pulled it and it was plugged. Once cleaned out, all was well. (Just make sure to relocate the puke bottle, do a search on it and all will be well)

dozer12216

Per posts above. It is difficult to see the crud in radiator fins. Be a good time to flush and change coolant if remove of radiator justified. Pull water pump and ALL the coolant will come out. Get new O ring and theromstat along with green stuff and distilled water.

whiskers

I had the same problems with my '02. It had a half inch of crud in between the radiator and inter cooler. You could not see it at all. I climb that same pass every year, it is a booger!

PaulDaisy

I had gradual overheating problems with mine on some Colorado passes. Ended up taking out the radiator, even though it didn't look dirty, and cleaning it out. It *was* dirty! Slight haze of oil from the breather plus cottonwood fiber, plus bugs and who knows what else were all in between the fins, only very little was visible on the outside.
Overheating is not in the past.

TankerIP

Today I made it up from Artesia to Cloudcroft. No problem at all. 195 degrees the whole climb. I guess the real problem is the grade on the western side. It's 6.5% (whatever that means). Today I spent 77 miles to climb and only 16 to go down.

MontanaRam

6.5% grade rises 6.5 feet for every 100 feet traveled. Fairly steep for a highway. At that grade, you go up (or down) about 343 feet per mile.

oldkimmer

...........SAME PROBLEM........where do i relocate the hose to that i install so that i dont scuz anything up under or behind my truck that i'm pulling.......is the hose end left open or do i put the puke bottle on the end......thanks........kim.....