The flush seems like the first thing to try and while I'm in there in will do the T-Sat. I have a new cap on the way from BpUT. I will look here on the forum for the flush procedure.

Thank You everyone for their replies.

--Mike

 

What you are hoping is that radiator is not clogged in lower tubes. If you warm up truck, the turn off, you can feel by hand (or IR thermometer) and see if bottom area is a lot colder (like 20 degrees different) from top area of radiator. That would be because lower tubes are restricted, and there is no flow, or very little flow (so rad cools that off quicker). Pix of Dexcool sludge, which can happen if (a.) you believed it was good forever and never changed it, (b) someone added a different kind of coolant to "top off your fluids" (common at some quick oilz changez places), etc. Or if you used something other than distilled water on a long term basis you can build up calcium. Well water tastes good, but is not good for cooking in radiators.

 

My temps were very much the same as yours even when I was in Baltimore or down in Florida so last week I did three flushes to get rid of the dex col then put a new Thermostat in. My old stat was date stamped 03' so had been in there 9 years. Since changing it my temps have come down by 8 degrees and now goes down the road at 195.8 and around town here in FL will peak at 203.

 

This is encouraging. I have the new T-Sat in hand and will do this service this weekend. I have the RAVE so I can use that for the T-Sat change, but could some one point me to a thread for flushing and switching from DEX-COOL to Regular Rad fluid? Also, how much distilled water and Rad fluid should I go purchase? Any brands that you like?

Thanks,

Mike

 

Mike if you read page one of this thread then you will see I posted the RAVE and procedures for doing it. I got 6 gallons of the cheapest distilled water and two bottles of flush from Walmart. Make sure you follow it and you remove the stat at each flush. I have a 03' with the plastic screw in a t piece that sprung a leak when i was filing with peak green 50/50 so after a long story went to BMW and got one for half the price, you might want to think about getting a spare incase yours does the same as it can be a PITA and runin your day for $8 and a piece of plastic

 

Thanks,
I hope mine does not spring a leak. Mine is an 04 so we are identical. How many gallons of Peak 50/50 should I buy? I will go back and look at the first page.

--Mike

 

O.K. just one more question. I just read the RAVE about draining the system. It says to remove the Left and Right plugs in the side of the block and the lower radiator hose and top hose above the T-Stat. Are the block plugs necessary to remove? Also I thought there was a drain plug on the bottom of the radiator?

Thanks,

Mike

 

No drain plug on radiator, have to release a hose. Would not remove drain plugs from block, you might squirt it out with a water hose, same with heater core (reverse direction). Would be nice if was distilled water and you had your own pump, but in this case garden hose water will do. Do as much final flush of rad with distilled water, about 75 cents a gallon around me. Also good to mix with coolant, if you are not going premix.

 

Okay, I think I'm getting down to the issue - The aftermarket thermostat.

Bled the coolant system per instructions above from the RAVE and let it cool overnight, couldn't get to it yesterday so took it out on a test drive today with a code reader hooked up, system threw no codes and the dashboard temp gauge stayed right in the center until the very end, when the code reader was showing temps over 220 F. All fans were operating and the engine sounded fine but due to the high temp I pulled it into my driveway (I didn't go far and wanted to test in the middle of the day due to traffic issues in my neighborhood), but while checking around under the hood I found that all of the hoses were warm, including the top radiator return hose - Except the hose from the thermostat to the radiator. I'm figuring that the aftermarket thermostat from British Atlantic is the culprit and will soon get on the horn to B.A. Thank you all again for your help and tips both on this thread and others on this Forum. If you have any other ideas of what could be a problem please post your thoughts but I think that with all of your help I've likely tracked down the culprit, trying to save a few bucks, as Homer Simpson would say, Doh!

 

Just got off the phone with Atlantic British, they were very helpful and are charging me the difference between the two thermostats. Will update when I get everything installed and settled. Thank you all again.