is 202 degrees an acceptable operating temp? (1 Viewer)

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Holy freaking accessories batman.

i agree w/ the curse of the scanguage, ive had installed for just two days and been worried about the numbers ive seen. Glad you posted up. Ive been at 178-188 w/ limited driving around town, have yet to hit the hills or hwy.
 
if you are running these temps the thermostat is no longer governing your engine temps, your cooling system is.

that is indeed true. But that's fine. The tstat starts to open at about 180F and should be fully open by 200F or so, maybe even 190 I suspect. Nothing wrong with it being fully open, you'd want that when the load increases. Basically, they have sized the system in such as way that with the tstat fully open, and given the rad, fan, coolant passages etc, air speed, coolant pump etc, the temp should not normally go over 226 or so (per the a/c shut off). When the tstat is fully open you rely on the fact that as the coolant temperature increases, so does the heat transfer out, and it will reach another equilibrium temperature.
 
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.
 
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. If the cooling system performance has degraded then the original system design considerations are no longer applicable. I would hope that they have put in a safety margin considering the possibility of reduced performance, though. (Of course one could say something similar about the HG not being so well thought out... :frown:)

I go by the 226 criterion. Less than that, it may not be best but it's no real emergency. (And I'm the guy who put in a system with alarm on the coolant and ATF... :eek:)

I figure if over 226 was a true emergency, they would have put in automatic ejection seats setting off at that temp... :D
 
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.
 
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.



can't argue with any of that. Good analysis, but we don't know the "reserve capacity" of the original system. What we do know is that the designers would rather we don't go much over 226F. Now, it's probably fair to add that the 226 was again a "new + reserve" figure. Whether the HG for example is able to withstand high temperatures or large temperature difference cycles as well with 100K miles or 10 years is a different story altogether.

Altogether, it's probably safe to say that the lower the temperatures, the better for the engine (maybe not for emissions or mileage), so I'm not saying we should run at 220 all the time, far from that. But I am not going to start panicking when it gets to 200 either....

Bottom line for me: use the temp as an indicator of potential / sudden trouble or accelerating trends, and of course do something if it gets around 220 or so.
 
e, LandTank is totally correct with all counts; the temps the OP wrote about are not actually all that concerning with hot weather conditions but it is concerning on a cool Fall or Winter day regardless of how many tools that are added to the rig. Reading too much towards whatever Toyota allows in terms of the AC is not really relevant especially when its Fall or Winter and the AC is off! Now it does indeed do something for saying that "202" is not all that worrisome but ... if you are getting above 202 when abient temps are low, something is degrading whether it is the rad the fan or the whatever else. I see the temps the OP wrote about as a warning that come Spring or Summer (depending on where he wheels) things will be worse.

For comparison purposes, even with all the added BTU's that the turbo throws into the system, and even with my wild mountain runs, I've never seen anything above 216 F with the stock radiator and after switching to the Ron Davis Racing radiator, I've never seen anything above 204 F even when I was REALLY pushing it. This is at around 10K to 14K altitudes on very steep slopes for definitely long durations of bouncing off my rev limiter from full throttle on loose gravel. There is plenty of reserve within the system, and although LT is correct that with armor and large tires and large lifts we are dipping into that reserve, if we are getting 202 on a Fall or Winter day, we are actually getting a good advanced warning. HTH> :cheers:
 
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...:))
 
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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 did a trip in my Subaru with the Scangauge and it was fluctuating between 188 and 201 at highway speeds. Seems to bobble up and down constantly during city and highway driving.
 
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...:))

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!?! :D:D:D
 
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.


Not amazing at all. It's likely it was steady at 180 just because the thermostat was only partially (probably little) open. For the same reason that I read 180 when going downhill for a long time in the summer, it just can't get lower. It's an automatic thermomechanical feedback mechanism with a built-in plateau of temperature :D. I'm guessing it would have to be much colder than 20 and/or going downhill fast to get below that. May not even be possible at moderate temperatures, depending on system design. Anybody up in Alaska can comment on the normal engine temps when it's -20F outside? That should be cold enough to be interesting :).
 
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!?! :D:D:D

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. :D

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!!

:)
 
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. :D

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!!

:)

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" !!! :D 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. :cheers:
 
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" !!! :D 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. :cheers:

:cheers: :)
 
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.
 
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.

Sounds like it is working like new!
 
glad to hear it, that's the way it supposed to run. Do you still have those large lights on the ARB?

x2, and, we tried to tell you e! :D:D:D
 

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