Hey.
Comparing between my truck and my friends and our work truck, mine doesn't blow as hot of air as the rest do. The only difference that I know of is my radiator is full of pure antifreeze. (didn't put water in so as to help protect the 53 under the hood from cavitation etc. but now that there are 130k on it almost i"m pretty sure its not gonna crack) I HEARD that this was alright to do but maybe not? Let me know haha it's gettin cool in the mornings and nights! A full hot heater would be great!

oh also the vac. lines are all good and the blend door/directional controls work correctly as well as the fan and fan speeds. TIA!!
TNutcher

 

Not sure if its related, but you cant run straight coolant. As far as I know, there needs to be some water in the system. Im curious - where did you hear about running straight coolant?

If you want to eliminate the water, look at Evans Cool: http://www.evanscooling.com/index2.html

 

That Evans NPG cooling is very interesting, anybody tried it yet ?

It's sure expensive at $ 32.50/gallon.

 

well it was actually my father's suggestion. I had taken the radiator out to fix something else and when putting it back in he suggested to put strait antifreeze in it since he knew I didn't want water in there with the 53. It runs fine and doesn't over heat. Goes past 190 then back down to probably 170 and stays there or fluctuates very little.

I'd rather spend the money on other things and just put some water in it with some additive than go the evans rout, although that would probably be best.

Why can't it have strait antifreeze in it? is it hard on the water pump or doesn't cool as well? Just trying to make sense of it. Thanks for the reply's
TNutcher

 

Its is but its supposed to be really helpful against cracking a #53.

Plus, you dont have to change it very often, if ever.

 

Have you checked if the rad is full? If not the heater core may not be full of coolant. You could also try bleeding the heater core. Does the engine temp come up to normal on the gauge? If not the engine fan may be partially engaged all the time, it could also be the thermostat.

 

Straight anit freeze will freeze and crack your block. You should run it like the directions on the anti freeze explain. Apart from the freeze danger it is also a waste of money as your protection decreases after a certain point as you get purer.

 

What JHS said, plus cavitation is not a danger with a Cummins. That is a V8 diesel problem (as in PSD). If your heater isn't working well the core probably needs to be cleaned. A quick, less efficient way is to remove the fan and try to clean the area with a vacuum and spraying a cleaner thru the fins. The liqid will drain out the hole for the A/C. The best way is a major job. Remove the dash, pull the core out and either clean or replace it.

 

wait so 100% ANTI FREEZE runs the risk of freezing/expanding and cracking the block?? hmmm i wouldn't have thought of that. I knew the cooling capability went down the more you use but didn't know that.

The rad. is full and the overflow bottle is between the full and add marks as well.

I'll drain 3 gallons off and put the rest water and some additive possibly too and see if that helps is blow hotter.

If not where is the core located? I imagine straight under the dash but how can one access it from behind? Thanks
TNutcher

 

Youve got it...right behond the dash - to change it I believe you have to pull the dash. 6-8 hours in a shop if you cant do it yourself.

 

A somewhat easy way to determine if your heater core is starting to clog up is start the truck and get some heat in it(drive it around the block or something) then open the hood and grab the hoses going through the fire wall to the heater core. The inlet hose to the heater core will be hot(possibly just warm depending on how much heat you got in it from driving around the block). The other(the outlet side) should be warm(or hot) too. On my last Ram, I suspected the heater core was beginning to clog. Even though both hoses had heat in them, I thought the difference between the two hoses was too much. All I did in that case was rig up a 'back flush' of sorts. I disconnected both hoses from the heater core. I found enough length of hose in the garage that I was able to hook it up (I used duct tape for this...it's all I had at the time) to the inlet side of the heater core and routed it out of the engine bay and away from the truck so no antifreeze got on the truck(you should have it dump into something to catch the antifreeze). I then attached the garden hose to the outlet side and ran water through it in the opposite direction it normally would flow. I had chuncks of brownish green sludge come out. I then reversed the flow and ran the water through the normal direction. I went back and forth several times until I thought nothing else was going to come out. Put it all back together and tried it...it blew hot air again after that. Now, if back flushing with water doesn't work, then the heater core is completely clogged up and you will either have to use some type of chemical to unclog it, pay someone to flush the heater core with a special machine, or replace the heater core, or just keep trying several times until you realize there's no way your going to get it to flow. I don't like using chemicals to flush cooling systems. I've seen some chemicals attack welds and cause leaks. But, sometimes they reveal leaks that the sludge was sealing off and expose a future problem in the process. Either way, I'd feel the hoses and if the temp is very different from each other, I'd use the garden hose to back flush the heater core first. Just don't run the garden hose on spray. I took the spray handle off to do mine. That way I was able to connect the garden hose with just my hand. I've had to do this to two vehicles that we've owned and both times it's worked. But, I only did it after feeling for the difference in temp between the inlet side and outlet side of the heater core hoses.

 

If the 99 is like a 97, the fan and motor are on the passenger side and can be removed by taking out three mounting bolts and disconnecting the elec. It is possible to reach up there and feel the core fins. There also may be dirt and leaves in there that need to be removed.

 

alright I drained the radiator or as much would come out of the little drain valve and filled it up with water and it seems to blow hotter. I put in some "water wetter" with that as well. I think its probably around a 60/40 mix of antifreeze/water because 2.5 gallons of so was what i was able to get out of it.

Is that mix sufficient?

Is there any other additives i should throw in there?

Thanks a bunch because the ride to school this morning certainly was warmer than before. It is cooler now than before and blows hotter which is weird but maybe the rate of cooling from the straight anti-freeze inhibited it from blowing hot as it doesn't cool well?? hmm haha oh well i like it. Thank you all. I also did the hose feel trick and it was pretty even on either side so maybe it was just the coolant.
Thanks again
TNutcher

 

50/50 mix should probably be sufficient where you live.

 

k thanks i drained a little more off so its probably about that! Much appreciated

TNutcher