Thought I'd share a belt expeience that truley sucked, and get some opinions on what I did wrong, right, and where to go from here...
5am...family loaded for 5 days of back roads camping in the sierras, truck good, fluids checked, belts, hoses checked seemingly all good
15 minutes into driving, battery light comes on, now I have had my E-Brake light flickering off and on lately, so at first I thought hmm, maybe dashboard light issues....well in a matter of 30 seconds, engine light comes on, my eyes jump from batterty light to engine light to rapidly climbing temp gauge..WTF, I am in the maze on I-80 by Oakland....sucky place so I throw on Hazards, slowly get over to slow lane, temp gauge is still just climbing, as I hit an offramp, BAM under the hood explodes...smoke everywhere...crap.
Hood open, I see, no Alt Belts, they are wrapped around the fan, main hose on top driver side of radiator is blown off, coolant everywhere. So I bust out tools, throw on new belts, replace the hose, refill coolant, start and run the engine to get air out of system, and I am good to go.....NOT
Start seeing continuous leaking from top seam in Radiator....seam in Rad is blown...call 3 toy dealers no OEM rad anywhere, get referred to a rad shop, get a non OEM rad put in, family packed 3pm on the road to camp. Truck ran great all week.
SO, now I am stuck with a non oem rad, ironically the trucks thermometer read a hair cooler than it ever has, even in 95 degree weather going 70 mph
So what do you al recommend, should I stick with this radiator for now? Feed Cdans dogs in a year or so and get the OEM Brass. Get the aftermarket rad out asap?
Also, no coolant visibly in the oil, should I get a sample tested to see about any possible HG issues. My temp gauge pinned to hot, but only for maybe 5 to 10 seconds....this happened so fast it was crazy.
Any experiences or opinions appreciated!
Jeff
5am...family loaded for 5 days of back roads camping in the sierras, truck good, fluids checked, belts, hoses checked seemingly all good
15 minutes into driving, battery light comes on, now I have had my E-Brake light flickering off and on lately, so at first I thought hmm, maybe dashboard light issues....well in a matter of 30 seconds, engine light comes on, my eyes jump from batterty light to engine light to rapidly climbing temp gauge..WTF, I am in the maze on I-80 by Oakland....sucky place so I throw on Hazards, slowly get over to slow lane, temp gauge is still just climbing, as I hit an offramp, BAM under the hood explodes...smoke everywhere...crap.
Hood open, I see, no Alt Belts, they are wrapped around the fan, main hose on top driver side of radiator is blown off, coolant everywhere. So I bust out tools, throw on new belts, replace the hose, refill coolant, start and run the engine to get air out of system, and I am good to go.....NOT
Start seeing continuous leaking from top seam in Radiator....seam in Rad is blown...call 3 toy dealers no OEM rad anywhere, get referred to a rad shop, get a non OEM rad put in, family packed 3pm on the road to camp. Truck ran great all week.
SO, now I am stuck with a non oem rad, ironically the trucks thermometer read a hair cooler than it ever has, even in 95 degree weather going 70 mph
So what do you al recommend, should I stick with this radiator for now? Feed Cdans dogs in a year or so and get the OEM Brass. Get the aftermarket rad out asap?
Also, no coolant visibly in the oil, should I get a sample tested to see about any possible HG issues. My temp gauge pinned to hot, but only for maybe 5 to 10 seconds....this happened so fast it was crazy.
Any experiences or opinions appreciated!
Jeff