Overheating on Hill, Need Help?
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Senior User
Joined: Sep 2007
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From: Roberta, GA
Overheating on Hill, Need Help?
I was on a run today, going up a hill 70 MPH, hills about 2-3 miles, truck started overheating, I am talking all the way up to the beginning of the red. I was running the a/c so I turned that off, stopped and filled up the reservoir and let it cool down to normal temp, on the way back with the a/c off it still heated up quite a bit. I'll be heading out another 1500 miles here in a few weeks need to get this fixed. No thermostat installed. Water Pump ? Clutch Fan?
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From: Charlotte-Fairbanks-Bflo
If the water pump is not leaking or making noise it is not likely to be the problem. So that leaves the fan. When it is hot how freely does the fan turn by hand? If I'm right, if the engine is pretty warm or hot the fan should be nearly impossible to turn by hand if the clutch is working properly.
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From: Charlotte-Fairbanks-Bflo
Just up to temp should only result in slight resistance, overheated it should be locked up pretty good. This reply is slow because my battery died. Sorry. But answer Barry's question too.
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From: Roberta, GA
When I pulled it into the gas station to let it cool down, it took about 3.5 gallon to fill it back up, it was steaming and bubbling very hot. No signs of oil in water. It ran great home just starts to climb on a good run up hill.
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Cargo Master
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From: Archdale,N.C.
Did you say No thermostat installed? I always thought that it needs a thermostat to exchange the water so it could be cooled by the air passing through the radiator.
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Joined: Sep 2007
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From: Roberta, GA
I don't believe that they need a thermostat I know of several members that run with none. It just makes it easier to bring the engine up to temperature. I could be wrong though, someone will tell me!
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From: Charlotte-Fairbanks-Bflo
3 and 1/2 gallons, jeez you have almost nothing but water in there. In all these years and miles I've never put water in mine. Think maybe you should do something about that. Also why no thermostat? I know back in my street racing days no thermostat was a good idea but I don't know about doing it with a 7.3.
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From: Roberta, GA
I plan on flushing and refilling with antifreeze, but had to use water, nothing else available at the time. It had antifreeze when it overheated. I pulled the thermostat on the way back from SC Last month when it stuck shut and overheated coming into NC.
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From: Charlotte-Fairbanks-Bflo
How many mile you have on this rig? It sounds like you may have other problems if it is not a fan clutch going bad. I've had to replace mine once at about 185k so maybe that is your problem. We used to remove the thermostat because we were using electric fans and water pumps and wanted to circulate lots of water with the engine not running. I suspect your clutch is bad, but maybe you have radiator problems. With all of the reading I do here I've not seen one radiator problem yet though.
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From: Roberta, GA
299K, Waiting to turn into a new truck at the 300k mark! I suspect the clutch is bad, it didn't appear to be turning very fast the last time it got hot, plus one of the blades has a crack in it, so I should probably replace both fan and clutch. Is there a HD Clutch for these? Whats the thoughts of the 203 thermostat?
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From: Charlotte-Fairbanks-Bflo
If the fan is not turning fast when it's hot there's your problem right there. I don't know about heavy duty, I think I got mine at Pep Boys and put it in when I replaced the water pump for the 2nd time. But if you're getting rid of it within another 1000 miles why do you worry about it?