Well I cant get into the dyno once again today so I thought I would work on the old girl anyways. Im heading down to El Paso TX with it in a few weeks hauling a buds F-250 with a 460CID. I used to run down there in a "big truck" and I know how hot it can get. I noticed the truck would run a little warm even in the heat up here in Minnesota so I thought I would pull the radiator and clean it up. After getting it pulled out, all I can say is holy crap!!! I bet 40% of it was clogged with dirt, grease, oil, that cotton crap that comes off of the cottonwood trees, small animals including birds, squirrels, bats and someones Donut from the break room . Im taking a lunchbreak now, and I will post some pics of it in a bit. Should run a tad cooler now!

 

was the debris visible with out removing the radiator?
if not, i should do mine.....

 

I've seen a few truck come through that had major overheating issues! The DC Rep had even looked at a few saying the owner should be towing at that high of temp? A Big key is the moving of the Blow by Bottle! That oil with some road grime is bad news! Pulling the radiator is the fail proof way to get it right, It seems to be on the lower half most of the time! Alot of time's we're able to get by just spraying it out from up top!
L

 

About only 20% of the total grime was visible without removing the radiator itself. Heres a few pics of what I found. Im guessing its the first time it was ever cleaned. (138,000 Miles)

 

Ick, I know mine has a bit of oil/dirt in it. Maybe I should clean it out one of these days.

 

I pulled an cleaned mine when I was doing all new hoses one mine and I tell you, there was more crap packed into that radiator than I could have ever imagined.

If youve never pulled it and cleaned it, might want to consider giving it a shot. I probably spent an hour using air and water to get all the crap out. It was kind of visible from above, I could see all the cotton stuff at least.

Before I never really had problems with cooling, however on my last trip through the southwest it never got over 190 and that was going over 11k and 12k passes.

Once I put the radiator back in, I bought a four foot roll of screen door netting and ran a piece down over the front of the IC and Rad. to keep the stuff out. Seemed to work good since every fillup I would get my little brush out and clean the netting off. Seemed it also didn't restrict airflow too much at all either.

Well, thats my .02

 

Good idea On the screen for the front! The back of the radiator was plenty dirty from the blow by tube, but the front was plugged worst than the back was on mine. Im going to get some hose and a hose connector and let the blow by tube run further down. Let er blow the smoke and grime onto the ground instead of the radiator.

 

Re-locate the crankcase breather bottle and the crud will not come back.