Hey, I'm trying to get this thing ready for Alaska. I have a friend in Nome that promised to take me Carribou hunting if we can make it there. I drove my old F150 there when it was new and it was fun.
He's a native and can barely get out by dog sled in the winter he says.

 

if i dont get on the highway and just stay in town, non of my diesel radiators even get warm, coolant only stays about 180-190f on my gauge

one winter i was at the fuel station and i seen all this steam comming from my radiator! i opened the hood in a panic and thought i had a leak, i did not it was just the previous weeks of ice build up on the radiator startign to melt off becuase i had run it hard enough that day to open the thermostat! hehe


on teh slope they run them high idle all the time, because at normal idle they get cold soaked runing

 

How does one take the cowl off to clear the debris from the fan intake?

 

a large sledge or dynamite.

 

IIRC , remove the lower WS molding (requires a special tool) then, just screws after that ..Stop by I 'll do it for you .....

 

Hmmm.. Thats tempting. I've never been to Michigan before...

But yeah, I agree with most of the posters that there is definitely an issue here. Mine takes a while to blow hot air but once you hit operating temp it stays there and blows out hot air.

 

I lived with those frustrating heaters on the 70's trucks, lol! What a pain!

As for that cowl pan, lots of small screws, then it lifts up, and you can pull it forward, clearing the chrome trim. You will also need to remove the wiper arms and unscrew the antenna.

I am getting ready to make a lengthy trip myself, 4700 miles all together, so now I will make sure my heat is good too! LOL!

 

I've had the one off of my F-150 like 3 times now. It's easy. Pop the hood and there are a few screws holding in there, then there are like 4 or 5 screws that you have to pull out of the top of the cowl. From there you might need to either pull the hood off or loosen it and move it as far forward on the brackets as you can and you can wrestle the cowl out without touching the windshield trim. Get you a roll of that weather stripping that they used under there b/c I bet yours is toasted.

Dan, my heater feels like it's blowing fire out of it. Once it gets about 125* then the heater will be a little warm, but once it's up around 150*+ then the fire starts blowing. Mine also runs a stable around 185* running 60mph. If I bump it up to around 70mph it will come up to 190-195*. If I'm in the hills or running over 70mph it will usually stay around 200-205*. Thats with a stock replacement 1995 203* stat.. Granted it doesn't get screaming cold down here like y'all are talking about, but still. LoL

 

I was talking to some buddies the other night. Temp gauge was at R in normal when I stopped. It was 5 out and it idled at 600 rpm or so for roughly an hour. Temp dropped to the cold line. EGT gauge was 200 degrees at idle. Normally 300. 0 is about as cold as it ever gets around here.

 

Thats pretty wild.. Temps all around are pretty low from what I hear! So this really hs me curious how everyone's is managing!

 

RRanch ... you definitely got something wrong. It's about 0* out right now. The truck WILL NOT warm up idling ... it's just wasting fuel.

That said .. mine takes about 10 minutes on the highway to fully warm up, but once it does, it cooks me out of the cab!!

I took my fan off, have a winter cover and the radiator is covered with cardboard. My water outlet had a pretty big leak in it a few weeks ago. The only time my needle gets above R is if there's an air bubble in the system and IT'S STILL HOT in the cab. I open the reservoir cap and let the air out and all is fine again.

 

I bet one of these things would speed up your warm up time.

Espar HeateR Systems | A World of Comfort | Coolant Heaters

 

I bypassed the filter last night and on the drive in to work this morning it helped a little. It's only 10 degrees out right now. I did have it in the garage last night though so the truck didn't get below freezing till I opened the door. It didn't help the temperature any but it warmed the cab up a bit better. I got it to 75 in there by the time I dropped my wife off. That was in 30 miles. The engine temp never gets over the O on the factory gauge like this. That's 180 on the real gauge. when it's warm out, no matter what I'm pulling it just barely touches the R. I'm putting the camper on in a couple days for a little day trip with my wife. We'll see how it does then. Last time I had it loaded it was in the 30's and it was running about 200 degrees. I think this new radiator is just too much for the cold. The motorcraft thermostat is working right and it won't even think about overheating. I have a new 13 pound radiator cap on it with no leaks anywhere. Prestone in it and the right amount of DCA. I don't know. It's just one big radiator.

I need to wash it today and get all this nasty road salt off. Any volunteers to come do the underside?

 

My truck looks white not red like it's suppose to be. At least my kids are old enough that they quit writing things in the salt spray.

 

Reading above, "once the thermostat opens the engine temp settles out at about 120 - 150" tells me you have a thermostat problem.

I don't have a real temperature gauge in the coolant, but I do have an oil temp gauge.
And the oil temp in my engine is within 5 degrees of the thermostat rating within 5 miles of driving in 5 degree temps.

I just fired my truck up this morning, 10 degrees out there to plow the snow where it was parked.
Not plugged in, first start for 2 days and the defroster was starting to melt the ice on the windshield within 5 minutes at idle.

97 crew cab, and my EBPV is still working with a 195 thermostat installed.

10 miles down the road, if the dash vents are blowing on your knees you will want to move the vent deflectors so it is not blowing on your knees.