Yesterday was an interesting day. Left Palm Springs around 1pm to drive the family back to Los Angeles. It was HOT! My 1997 has a very well sorted cooling system, I think. Just overhauled the system a month or so back with a new OEM radiator, new radiator cowl, new fan, new coolant, etc. And I run a Wit’s End blue fan clutch. All of this is running on a factory new long block engine overhaul less than 15k miles ago.
Normally, my truck runs a very reliable 181-185. With triple digits on the ambient temp gauge, a full load of vacation gear in back, AC blasting, I was just touching 190* on the Ultragauge.
But leaving Palm Springs yesterday, we hit a complete bottleneck of traffic in a construction zone. To make matters worse, it was a long shallow incline, so there was added load. In very slow stop and go traffic, temps seemed stable at 210 with the AC on max. Not terribly worried, but I was paying close attention. Then traffic parked and we had absolutely nowhere to go and zero air through the rad. It spiked quickly to 217, then 220, then 227. That’s when the AC shut off.
To my wife’s horror, I rolled down all the windows and blasted the heat on high. Turned the rear aux heater on max as well. Watching the ultragauge, temps absolutely PLUMMETED. No exaggeration, within one minute, temps dropped to 199* and help solid. The kids were cheering like USA just beat Russia in hockey. It was pretty spectacular actually. Took about five mins before traffic started moving again, and as soon as it did, the windows went back up and the AC was back on max.
All a long way of saying, would this be considered a reasonable response, or should a well functioning 1FZ system have more headroom? I kinda feel like asking just about any engine to maintain its composure in 120+ heat on a parked freeway is a tall ask.
Normally, my truck runs a very reliable 181-185. With triple digits on the ambient temp gauge, a full load of vacation gear in back, AC blasting, I was just touching 190* on the Ultragauge.
But leaving Palm Springs yesterday, we hit a complete bottleneck of traffic in a construction zone. To make matters worse, it was a long shallow incline, so there was added load. In very slow stop and go traffic, temps seemed stable at 210 with the AC on max. Not terribly worried, but I was paying close attention. Then traffic parked and we had absolutely nowhere to go and zero air through the rad. It spiked quickly to 217, then 220, then 227. That’s when the AC shut off.
To my wife’s horror, I rolled down all the windows and blasted the heat on high. Turned the rear aux heater on max as well. Watching the ultragauge, temps absolutely PLUMMETED. No exaggeration, within one minute, temps dropped to 199* and help solid. The kids were cheering like USA just beat Russia in hockey. It was pretty spectacular actually. Took about five mins before traffic started moving again, and as soon as it did, the windows went back up and the AC was back on max.
All a long way of saying, would this be considered a reasonable response, or should a well functioning 1FZ system have more headroom? I kinda feel like asking just about any engine to maintain its composure in 120+ heat on a parked freeway is a tall ask.