You are entirely too anal. 210-220 degrees at the engine is normal. Just do not get above that
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You are entirely too anal. 210-220 degrees at the engine is normal. Just do not get above that
if you are running these temps the thermostat is no longer governing your engine temps, your cooling system is.
Nothing wrong with it being fully open, you'd want that when the load increases.
I would argue that it depends on what the ambient temperature is when fully open. Death valley during 140* weather sure, a fall day at around 60* no way.
The reason so many manufactures use Death valley as a proving ground for their vehicles is to evaluated their cooling systems under full load.
My truck was at death valley on a 130* day when it had only 38k on it and everything was stock. The AC cut out once while climbing back out of the valley and returned after only being off for 5 minutes. I suspect that a lot of these trucks today that are running in the 200* range in these milder temps couldn't match that.
sure but that's a different story.
That's not a different story but the crux of the whole story.
Most of us are heavily modifying the trucks and adding a lot of weight. This adds to the load on the engine and that gets transfered to the cooling system. All this has ebbed away at the designed safety margin.
My thinking is that these heavily modified trucks are now using a large part of the reserve capacity designed for those times the truck is towing, all the time now for just driving. Now when we start to tow or load them up with gear we are getting to a point where hot weather can disable the truck.
Right now I feel my truck loaded with gear would perform similarly in Death Valley as it did so many years ago and that's because I've increased it's cooling capacity to compensate for the increase in demand.
the OP is asking whether 211 on uphills is too high and going to do damage on his current trip. He's not asking about the coming summer. My answer to his question is if it were mine I would not think it's too high and I would think it unlikely to have any damage. OK, damn, now I may have cursed him, sorry... (I'm taking no responsibility here...)
On a road trip across WI and back for the holidays my scan gauge was reading between 179 and 182 degrees with the ambient temperature in the 20's. I had my wife keeping a close eye on it since I noticed some coolant on the ground in the driveway when I got the rig all packed up and because the scangauge came in the mail the morning we left and I wasn't able to mount it prior to our voyage. The trip across WI has no mountain passes but isn't flat land either. I was amazed at how steady the temp was the whole way.
I think you missed the point totally. He's getting a good advanced warning that something is definitely degrading in terms of the cooling system capacity. If it is at 211 when the ambient air temps are in the thirtys or the twentys, what's it gonna get to when it is 100 out??? Sheesh man, try to keep up, okay!?!![]()
reread my post you quoted and the OP, please. Over and out on this unless it's currently 120F in TX in which case I'll tell him also to be very careful and monitor the temps on uphills.
OK, fine I'll add one more thing: it's not a linear process, dude! It's not going to be 280 engine at 120 outside because it's 180 at 20!!
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Huh? If it was 120F in TX at the moment, I'd tell him this is fine. I never suggested 280 or any linear amount. So, make that "Huh squared" !!!I'm just saying unless he's planning to sell the rig RIGHT after THIS trip, he's getting a good "heads up" that he needs to pay proper attention to the system. I think as usual we are more or less saying the same thing in different ways.
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just closing the loop on this. i had the raditator, fancutch, t-stat and all heater hoses replaced and on a 90* day with mixed highway and around town driving i was pretty much at 184* every time i looked down.
for me? i am pleased and glad the work was done.
glad to hear it, that's the way it supposed to run. Do you still have those large lights on the ARB?