Hey Guys...

went away for the long weekend camping. We have a little 3000LB trailer we tow.

In the past after a few hours hwy drive, then a logging road the temp gauge goes high...

My last attempt was to put a Ford T-stat in it... well, when I got the T-stat housing off I found there was nothing in there... thought that this may have been my problem, but it was not

This weekend we drove for 2 hours, got off the hwy and started climbing a gravell logging road within 5 mins or so. About haly way up to the lake we hit snow... no big deal, but still, in the snow it started to over heat...

I had to stap a few times to let it cool down, and the last time I let it sit for 45 mins or so then it seemed fine...

The temp gauge sits right in the center of "R" for notmal driving...

The only other odd part it I never really get much heat in the truck.... makes defrost hard... The hoses to the heater core are hot, but its never hot air inside... warm at best....

Here is what we got:

New Ford T stat
New water pump
New Rad
New fan clutch and fan
Just replaced missing shroud...

Any help would be awsome!!! thanks so much guys!!!!

Bob

 

The warm air out of the defrost may be a blend door that either has somethig blocking it, the cable is off or the seal is shot on it. I guess it could also be a blocked heater core, but if both hoses are hot that is not likely. The one from the passenger side head should be warmer that the one to the water pump.

Not sure how much different an 87 is from an 86, it takes about 30 minutes to remove my heater core.

Do you have a lot of air flow out of the heater?
If the answer is no, there may be leaves blocking the heater core.

If the flow is good but cold, the blend door is not closing or the blend door gasket is shot.

As for the overheating, did you hear the fan clutch lock?
Sounds like a airplane sitting under the hood reved up.

Just because you have a new one does not mean you have a good one.

 

Thanks Dave!!!

I had the heater core out of my bronco in less than 10 mins... I think the 87+ is even easier than the 86 and older... I wil have to pull it one day and look around in there... heat would be nice

when we went to leave the camp ground this morning, it was SNOWING like mad... we were 1800 feet up I think it was... when I steped on the gas peddal to back up the cable broke... I drove home in the snow today with no heat and my window down for 3 hours pulling a piece of string I attached to the IP.... I think this will be on my list of things to fix....

As for the overheating:

At one point when we stopped going up there Friday night, I poped the hood put my hand above the rad, between the rad and engine and felt almost no hot air being pulled... The gauge was approaching the "L" at this point...

It does seem to do it only at low speed under load after a 2 hour+ drive.. its probably not a bad place to start....

I wwill update as I go
Bob

 

Holy Crap!!!

I went and looked, the fan clutch is $270 canadain + taxes.... I dont think I will " just throw one on " for that price....

 

just a thought ,i had an 86 that would overheat now and then according to the gauge. i changed the thermastat a couple times before i installed another temp gauge under the dash.then the stock gauge would still "overheat" only once in a while and the real gauge w/ numbers would be fine. those dash gauges are not always trustworthy. good luck norm

 

Well.... by the time I could stop at the top of a hill the gauge was a touch over "L"... I could hear boiling, and it was bubbing over.... fairly sure that the gauge is correct

 

Is there any good way to test if the fan clutch is working??

 

Yes there is...... click on my name and email me I will send you the test info....... :Please use........... SUBJECT: Fan clutch test

 

Just a thought, you say you have a 92 front clip, was that and the radiator off of another diesel truck? The rad from a diesel is brass and relatively huge compared to a plastic and aluminum gasser rad. If it's not a diesel rad that would explain why it overheats unless your crusing down the highway with lots of airflow!

 

It overheated with both front clips.... I never changed rads... This is still the rad from the 1987 F250 diesel

 

After thinking for a while, were you at low RPM pulling the hill?

At high RPM there is no mistake when the fan clutch locks, very sudden increase in noise when it does.

But if you were at low RPM, lugging the engine, there may not have been enough RPM on the fan to draw enough air through the radiator even if everything was working correctly.

With the torque of a diesel off road, it is easy to drive up rather steep stuff a little over idle speed.

 

Hmmm.... I would say I was 1500+ the whole way up... seems to pull real nice between 1500 and 2000.... was no where near the 1000 RPM range....

PLC7.3 did you get my Email?? seems I have been having some problems with it as of late....

 

Max torque is about 1800 RPM.
That should have been enough RPM for it to keep it's cool.

General trucker rule, when the engine temp starts to climb, drop a gear and get the revs up so the radiator gets more air flow.

 

yeah... the gauge went up at one point, so I stoped, brought the revs up to about 2500 RPMs and sat for a min or so... the temp gauge continued to rise...

PLC7.3 sent me a really good setup for testing the clutch fan... I get the feeling that will be my next step....

 

If your using the dash guage it can and will rise to scarey heights, but the overheat sender light will come on and peg the guage when it is really at the limit........

Test the overheat sender wire........ just ground it out to the block. Location front lower corner of the drivers head.........has a 90* connector.