I noticed my temp. would climb slightly after a few extended seconds of WOT and when I pulled a decent hill pulling a small trailer (about 2K). "therobzilla" told me to take the radiator out and clean it very well....so thats what I did because I could see it was slightly plugged...but now that it's out, I can see It's completely full of crap. About 1/2 of the fins are plugged solid with what appears to be a mixture of dirt and oil. I've sprayed degreaser, a small amount of brake cleaner (ran out), starting fluid, and WD40 on the crap and then took the hose to it. I got about half of the crap out of the fins but there is still some stubburn stuff left. Is there any products/tips you guys have of getting a radiator spotless? I want this radiator completely clean because it was a PITA to get out and want to make it worth pulling, and so I don't have any issues pulling future loads I have in mind, obviously. :doah: Thanks! waytogo
Why not take it to a radiator shop, and have them boil it out. It will clean the outside and inside better than anything the average Joe can do. It'll be well worth the 50 bucks or whatever it costs.
Might as well do it while you have it out of the truckl, and the system all drained down. Beats having to do it all over again later down the road.
Too late for this suggestion because you already have the raditor out but...... we (at work) always use compressed air with a rubber tipped blow gun to knock all of the gunk out of the radiator from the fan side out. You will be suprised how well it gets the radiator clean. RJF I'm sure it's due to running around in the dirt being a Farmer and all.
While you're there check your ATA intercooler too. If the outside of the radiator is pluged then the ATA will be pluged too. waytogo
Well, I'd like to take credit for the crap in the radiator but I'll have to give that one to the previous owner. The truck has 111K on it and I've only had it for the 11K.... :doah: I usually blow all of our radiators out with air too, and tried that but it wouldn't blow out this greasey dirt that was in the fins. Long story short, I douced the radiator in WD40 to "mush" up the greasey dirt and hauled the radiator down the local car wash. My hose wouldn't blow it out but the hot pressure washer worked great. rotfl Radiator is as clean as a bell and back in. Fordcummins, Far as I know, the aluminum radiators with plastic tanks can't be rodded out. Right or wrong? When they went with the 24v they started using the current aluminum radiator, which you probably already know anyway. At least in our Freightliners that have the alum/plastic radiators, we have to throw them away and just buy a new one, but they are cheaper than the older brass/copper ones.
Way to go with the car wash and the radiator. waytogo Like FordCummins said nows the time to clean out the air to air. Also check out the fan clutch for leaking viscous fluid.
Ah, I wasnt aware it was a alum/plastic combo. Im not sure what they do on those setups to clean them, might want to call around.
I put the hose to the air to air, trans cooler, and condensor. The fan clutch seemed nice and tight and I didn't see any oil leaking around it. On another note, how do you get the fan off on these trucks? :doah: I figured it was like my previous GM ride where you unbolt the bolts on the pulley and the fan assembly falls off. I did that with my Dodge and the pulley, not the fan came off, and had a hell of a mess trying to get it back on along with teh serpintine belt. :doah: rotfl There looked to be a big nut on the fan there, was that it? I tried loosening it but all my wrenches were too fat to get on it.
In order to get the fan off, you have to have a single open end wrench close to the right size. I actually used a big plumbing monkey wrench with a cheater bar. It's reverse threaded if I remember correctly. Since you have done all of this, make sure that you extend the oil blow by tube below the front end, the blow by tube is what makes the gunk on the radiator. I extended my to behind the front axle and it worked great. The reason the radiator gets full, is the front of the truck creates suction from the road, and sucks the oil mist to the radiator and then the road grime builds up. This cleaning of the radiator will make a huge diffrence. You should now not have any issues with overheating or getting hot. Make sure that you use the correct antifreeze, it's special for the Diesels, low silicate type, read the containers on the antifreeze when you go to buy it. Also, I would suggest a water pump change since you have everything out. It's a cheap preventive maintance item, now especially since you won't have to drain the fluids again. Napa sell them brand new for about 50 bucks. Don't buy the dealer waterpump, it's over 120 bucks and the Napa pumb is brand new with a lifetime warrantee. I added Redline Diesel Water Wetter, it's good for about a 10 degree cooling effect. You can get the Redline Water Wetter from Autozone, at least that is where I got it, don't use the gasoline water wetter, they have one specifically for diesels. I tow in the summers of AZ and this wetter made a noticable diffrence. Also check the serpintine belt now, and replace if necessary. Overheating issues on our trucks are usually not a problem, even with adding BOMBS, it's usually the radiator like you saw. The reason I say do the water pump and the serpintine belt at the same time, is from experience, I did what you did and then the water pump went out, had to change the fluids and the water wetter no more than 10k miles after I did the radiator. Cost me the cost of the fluids and the water wetter all over again, lesson I learned, and thought I would pass on. BTW, make sure you only used distilled water in the radiator. Once you do this, your antifreezed is good for at aleast 100K miles. Good job. Rob
Use an air hamer with a dull chisel bit to remove the fan clutch by turning the big nut. Most of the time you don't need to back up the fan pulley to stop it from turning and I think it's right hand thread. I think Therobzilla is correct on the left handed threads.
OHHHHHHHHH....thats where all that gunk came from...the darned blow by.... :doah: That makes sence. Well, the truck is completely back together now and I just reused my old coolant, I flushed the system and put in new coolant a few weeks after I bought my truck, about 6 months ago. If I remember correctly, I just used the Napa brand antifreeze. Do you think this is a big deal? Worth changing? I will go ahead and wait on the pump and belt, my truck has an extended warranty still good for another 20K or 1.5 years so we'll see if it gives me any trouble. I drove the truck this morning and it never even made it to the thermostat temperature on my fairly short trip, which before it would have. I have put 10 miles on it and can already see a cooling effeciency difference. Thanks for the help guys. waytogo
