I'll just leave this here.



My thoughts are WP but i'll share more in the morning. Took me almost 2 hours to drive 20miles, had to pull over 4 times but made it home.

Now i'm eating avacado toast and it rules.

 

You said it looks like the original radiator right? Last one I grabbed on Ebay with free shipping was 50.00. Not saying you need one, but just tossing out the cost of one out there.

That is not a fun 20 mile trip for sure. I had a similar experience on my way to a wedding in the TX Hill Country with a 500.00 set of Efan's on my 08 Hummer H3 Alpha with an LS3 in it. I had it up to 237F out in the middle of the boonies. Only thing that saved us was it started to rain and it got my temps down in the 210F range. Soon as I got home I ripped that 500.00 crap out and went back to the OEM setup and it never got above 215F on even the hottest days, so I feel your pain.

So sorry you had such a horrible time getting home, but glad you made it home safely.

 

No need to feel sorry good sir -- just dealt with it and that is that

I'm not going to go into super detail of every time i had to stop but I did start seeing a pattern develop when driving. Car would be blowing hot air out the vents, then suddenly get ice cold and within about 5 mins of that occurring, the temps would rise and i'd have to pull over. Towards the end, I could prolong the intervals between the 4 stops i made (5 if you count stopping to buy more coolant) by keeping the engine revs above 2.5k.

I've got one of those ebay radiators on the way already along with a WP from lucky8. Just going to replace everything because i have a hunch the PO might have used a cruddy WP but I'll find out.

Sidenotes:

The heater core could be clogged / filthy. I was thinking I could bypass it for more "testing" but I'll probably just yank it out anyways and clean it.

This truck ran Dexcool coolant and not the green stuff. It's possible that i didn't flush the system well enough when switching to the green and the combination of the 2 could be causing problems.

I have next week off from school so gonna tear into everything and hopefully get MagPie all buttoned up.

 

Sure sounds like a bad radiator to me - I'll bet the replacement goes a long way toward fixing you up.

For the heater matrix disconnect the hoses and flush with water. Then, blow out as much liquid as you can using compressed air. Plug the lower pipe and fill the matrix with Prestone Flush & Cleaner and let it sit for a few hours, then rinse it with water again and blow out with compressed air.

When you refill the system with 50/50 green stuff include a bottle of Royal Purple Ice (or similar) additive. This should get you back into the 190s.

 

Couldn’t have said it any better Fast951

 

It may be worth your time/trouble to pull the block drain plugs when doing the radiator & pump. If there's a build up of crud around the cylinders it's easier for it to get flushed down and out. I also used a gallon of vinegar with balance of water as a cleaner and ran it for a couple of days before flushing again and refilling the coolant. Good luck.
......

 

Hmm.. I might do that but seems like a lot of work I was thinking of how i can flush the heater core since i don't have access to a hose (live in an apt complex) and without removing it from the truck.. Hmmm

Where are the plugs anyways?

 

on the sides of the block

 

Like the front and back sides or the left and right sides?

 

Left/right middle of block.
Mine are brass with a square head.