oh okk. i tried that and there was 10-20 degrees difference. drove out to the desert today and a few errands, only went to the 9 oclock position once. so i think ill get one of those $250 aluminium radiators before it gets really hot. people seem to have good luck with those.

 

Its supposed to run at the 9o'clock position.

 

Best to check with a scanner or Ultra Gauge. You can stop by a parts store and let them check for codes with one of their fancy scanners and get a read on the digital temp.

 

mine has always run closer to 8 clock! i need to get one of the gauges haha

 

Before you drop money on a new rad, know the exact temp you are dealing with.

 

My money is still on it being the fan clutch... Took me quite some time to become convinced mine was bad cause every time I tried to turn the fan by hand it felt rather stiff (i.e. clutch functioning)... What I found out was that after 10 to 15 minutes of use, the clutch became non-functional... I put the Chevy truck clutch on and had zero problems since... A $35 fix vise a $500 radiator replacement...

 

Yes, fan clutch should be checked cold, and again when fully warmed up, should not spin more than part of a revolution when released, and feel like peanut buter inside, not PB Blaster. Also, for test, you can take off the fan and drive without it at freeway speed. Just don't stop for long periods of time. The fan makes like 800 feet per minute of air flow. At 60 mph, you have 5,280 feet per minute of air flow, just by forward motion of the truck. Some owners have driven around in the winter time with no fan, does not change mpg as I recall.


The space on the gauge between "warm" and "toasted" is not far. And the gauges vary slightly by individual truck. The OBDII port temp reading is more accurate. A D1 is quite capable of operating at 180-187F with a 180F stat.

 

replaced radiator and all seems fine on the highway with the a/c on. soon as i got off the freeway the gauge started creeping up, so fan clutch is next. im also getting random blips in the temperature gauge without a/c on, usually coasting to a stop light but today it happened while going about 40. could that be a sign of headgaskets letting a little bit of pressure into the cooling system? not sure what symptoms of a failing headgasket are.

sorry no scangauge still :l

thanks again for the help!

 

The normal signs for head gasket issues are:

sound like water rushing thu pipes under dash, from bubbles in coolant, exhaust gas

white smoke out the exhaust after initial warm up

loss of coolant - with no leaks on ground

Heat spikes can also happen from cracked block.

Fan clutch is part of the picture with or without AC running. When you slow down, that blast of 60 mph air has to be made up for by the viscous clutch driven fan. Engine block is still hot from 60 mph operation. Some bump would be expected.

Without more accurate temp infomation fom a scanner or Ultra Gauge you can't see incremental improvements from your work. Maybe a parts store near you will rent a scanner?

 

you are getting pretty much what i get in the warm months, did a flush, stat, wp, new clutch,new hoses, new overflow cap, replaced intake gaskets that were leaking oil then suddenly the real problem shows itself, headgasket leaking down the front of the engine on drivers side

if I cannot find someone to clean and rod my copper rad I will end up buying a new one but I also need to find a machine shop to check the heads so I can do the gasket set that is sitting here all the shops I used to use the guys are ret or dead