How hot is too hot in the 5.4L motor in a 2001 F150? I recently took my clutch fan off my truck inorder to put in an electric fan. Well I took the truck out the other day (without the fan on) and got stuck in traffic and the engine coolant was on the H on the dash. I was sitting at lights for a while and didn't pay attention to it. And it was a bit too late. Now I think I hear a small ticking noise but am not sure?
How much heat in degrees can these motors tollerate? I know running normally without the fan and driving it runs dead center betweeen Hot and Cold, which is roughly 200° (checked with my Predator). Now I was wondering what the temperature is at the H on the dash, since I didn't check it with my Predator I had to get moving.
I would not recommend driving these trucks without the Clutch fan, but my radiator is a heavy duty one and is 2" thick, instead of the stock 1/2" thick and 1.25" thick towing package. The truck never gets hot but when stuck in one place for 10 minutes will do it!
Mark

 

IT should go into limp mode and the CEL will go on before it does any damage. That said something could have gotten just warm enough that it is damaged but the fail safe didn't kick in. I don't know what temp it comes in at but I've had mine at 228*F once for 30 seconds or less, going up a 3 mile 6% grade and the Efan controller didn't want to work. Nothing bad happened though.

On a side note anything under about 40mph will not cool the engine effectively without some find of added air flow through the radiator.

 

Fail-safe cooling typically is activated at 254 degrees. I've hit that with my old '98 before when the upper coolant hose blew off under load,and I never saw the cloud of coolant steam behind the truck due to the trailer. It was fine after cooling off and refilling the cooling system....been fine ever since.
JL

 

Thanks, Hopefully my truck is A ok!

 

Why would run the truck at all, much less in traffic, with no cooling fan?? What did you think would happen??

 

They run very well with no cooling fan so long as they are going down the road. The big issue is when the AC is on. Then it's critical that a fan of some sort is pulling air through the system if you are not moving.

 

When mine overheated it never went into failsafe and it warped the heads. Fun times.

Mike