I have a 2003 powerstroke, auto trans, stock tires and tow a 11,000lb 5th wheel rv. When I first bought the truck it towed amazingly, engine temp. never moved and I seemed to have all of the power I needed. In the last few months, the truck has been acting up while towing the same trailer to the same places.

During one trip the engine tempature while climbing a grade (which I have climbed several times before) the engine started getting hot, the check engine light came on, and then I started to loose power drastically. I pulled to the side of the road, allowed the engine to cool while idling then shut it off and re-started it. That would fix the problem for about 20 minutes, then it would do it again and again, even on straight aways. I took the truck to the dealer who re-programmed a computer component.

Since that time, I do not have the loss of power issue that I once did, however, I still have the engine tempature problem when climbing grades. I used to be able to pull grades at full throttle without any tempature problems. Now I have to back off of the throttle and slow way down in order to avoid overheating, which still happes from time to time.

My gas mileage has also drastically decreased over time. When I bought the truck it read 16mpg, not it continuously reads 9-10mpg towing or not.

Why am I having an overheating issue now, when I did not before. What can I do to correct this? I wondered if a complete Banks six-gun bundle system would help my situation or aggrevate it more? I was thinking that if the truck had more power then it would not work as hard up grades, thus running cooler. I may be far off in my thinking, can someone help?

 

just a though, power wash your radiator lately?

 

I don't mean to sound ignorant, but I am assuming you mean the exterior. No I don't use a powerwash. If you were referring to the interior of the radiator, I have not done that either.

 

Performance mods can sometimes help and sometimes hurt. They do increase overall efficiency, but they sometimes accomplish this by allowing a higher egt, more tubo psi, high shift points etc... I would not recommend something like this until you have your truck resolved. I am about the same as you, I usually tow anywhere from 8 to 12k lbs. when I am towing. However I have no difficulties regardless of grade. I have personally yet to hear of one overheating, I know for a fact there are plenty of 6.0s working as harder and some even harder that yours. What did your dealer say about your overheating?

 

How many mile on your truck.....and by the way WELCOME to FTE...

 

I have 8,400 miles

 

yes you were right to assume the exterior of the radiator. had it happen to me, too many bugs.

 

Bugs have caused problems before....last time I drove to Oklahoma… I hit all the bugs on the North American Content...in one mile....yuck…the radiator took 6 bucks in quarters to get clean, that was on my V-10…

 

I always have trouble getting all the bug smears off the windshield. It's like they're glued...

 

Copcanyon, I would get that truck into a good diesel tech before I started modifying anything. With only 8400 miles, it's not even broken in yet. How long had it been since you fueled up when it started acting bad? How many miles on it since the first time it acted up?

 

The overheating sounds like it's caused by your truck running SO ineffeciently that it is not powerful enough to do the job you're asking it to do and therefore it's overheating when you try to do it....

(Something like
if I had to run to the other side of the golf course now days - I'd overheat too )

I'd get it to another dealer because it's obvious the one you go to is not the sharpest pencil in the desk