And just as a question,

Is it me, or does the fact that a brand new oil cooler can get plugged up after 100 miles of driving indicate a bigger problem and maybe the manufacturer should address? I know these trucks are older, but if a design is that flawed, there should be something poor, out of warranty owners can do...

I'm just happy the people that came up with this brilliant design don't make airplanes.

 

You're good fenchy

 

This has been a good thread and at the right time for me. I installed gages right after the first of the year. The first thing I found was my thermostat was sticking and my coolant temps were staying right at 182. The second thing I found was that the oil temps were staying right at 197. I had changed out the coolant in September and didn't flush it. It looked good and I had been keeping an eye on the electrolysis and it was well in range. Yesterday with snow predicted I figured I would flush and put in a new thermostat. I could not find the restore anywhere and just flushed with the simple green pro and the vc9. My flushes were Clean! Just some suds with the simple green and nothing with the vc9! With the new thermostat my temps are coolant 190-192 and oil about 199 average with 204 the high. This is outside temps at 36 and these are at the end of a 50 mile trip at 80mph. Before it was 182 coolant and 197 oil, same trip. I get the puff of coolant at cold startup, but no real measurable loss. There has been extended idleing lately and the bottom of the egr passage is looking wet and gummy. Guess I need to start planning for the oil cooler in the future

 

The wetness could indicate you need an EGR cooler also.
When the oil cooler gets clogged, it causes the coolant flow to the
EGR Cooler to decrease. Then with high Exhaust gasses the EGR Cooler
starts to melt and leaks coolant into the exhaust and you end up
replacing them both - since most of the parts are already removed
at that time anyway, why risk doing it again in a few months?

I'm having both oil & egr coolers upgraded next week to bulletproofdiesel's so I don't have to worry in the future.

 

Maybe it's my brain full of Macallan talking right now, but it seriously blows my mind that the accepted thing to do with one of these trucks is drop ridiculous amounts of money into them to make them reliable, and that the attitude is mostly, "Oh well, gotta get a new oil cooler."

If I have to get a new oil cooler, I'm getting one of those punkin' chunkin' catapults to send the old back to Michigan.

 

Actually I am planning on it. I was got to start another thread and not hijack this one.....Trying to get the PNs now.

 

LOL, I'm Scots/Irish I know what you mean. While I tend to agree I am also realistic and very cheap. If I am going to get into this project I might as well do it once and not only be done with it but have some peace of mind about it. Plus I really don't want to hear about it, if it happened to break down when family or if friends were using it.....I also have had this truck for over 5 years now and I really just drove this thing, put tires on it and kept up with the maintanence. The biggest irritant has been the poor dealer work, I hate redoing someone elses work or lack of it.