cooling problems temp between m and a

[oldbustedblue]

bought a 93 with blown head gaskets. put new heads and head gaskets on it. drove a few thousand miles with no problems with temp gauge. now since we have had a hot spell of 100 plus weather is it normal with the ac on to get this hot? before it would not go above the O. i am thinking it might be the fan clutch also what is the difference between heavy duty and severe duty? anyone from the warmer climates feel free to give me there opinions. also the fan does not seem to get louder like other cars i have driven when hot. sorry for the novel but figured would go a little deeper in description of problem. thanks!

 

[Roadrunner777]

The fan will not make more noise. Do this: With the engine cold (and off!), try to turn the fan. Try to remember how much effort it takes. Then, do the same thing with the engine hot and off. It should take much more effort to turn it.

Somebody here had a similar problem, and they pulled the sensor to swap it out, and found some gunk on it that was making read higher then normal.

Do you feel you did a very thorough job of expelling the air after you did the heads? Does the gauge fluctuate more than it did before?

Is the radiator cap clean and tight? Are you confident you got your coolant mix right? Did you happen to go to a hotter thermostat when you did the work?

A lot of these are really basic questions, and if you did your heads, I'm guessing you already tested all this stuff. However, I am not immune from a lapse of reason, so I'm going to mention the obvious. I am hardly in a hotter climate... I am close to the Canadian border. Take my words with that in mind. But, I spent years in South Carolina working on cars so I do know a little bit about engine cooling.

Good Luck!

 

[Maniak]

Heavy duty and severe duty spin at the same shaft speed. The heavy duty can be used in higher rpm vehicles but the severe duty runs cooler and will last longer.

You can hear the fan noise change when the fan clutch engages on our '92 with a severe duty clutch. The fan is usually louder than the flowmaster 40 muffler from inside when its engaged.

You do need to find out what temp your truck is really running. Our X with a 195 thermostat can hit 205 when its hot out (was 115 or so in town today.. only 111 at the house). At that point the gauge is reading at the A-M. 205 isnt over heating so I dont wory about it. I have added a seperate coolant temp gauge that reads off the heater hose so I can keep a better eye on it and it moves more linear.

~Mark

 

[Roadrunner777]

Maniak is going to be your best choice for experience and temperature. I can't resist... though I tried hard... our top temp today was 76 degrees. Of course, we spend 6 months of the year in snowboots and the big secret in the winter is to put cardboard in front of the radiator, otherwise the engine never warms up.

Cheers, guys!

 

[oldbustedblue]

well just spun the fan blade by hand hot and cold it has the same resistance. will a infrared temp gauge work to see how hot it is or do i need to get a temp gauge like the one you mentioned maniak. thanks maniak and road runner.

 

[oldbustedblue]

replaced the fan clutch and fan does not get above the O thanks guys.

 

[Maniak]

replaced the fan clutch and fan does not get above the O thanks guys.

Woohoo.. Don't you just love it when a plan comes together?

BTW.. You can you an infrared temp sensor to figure out temps BUT one thing I found out is different color things give different values.. (not by much, but by some).

What I do if I need to compare temps is put some electrical tape on what I want to read. Then I put my sensor right up to it so its only ready that temp and the beam isn't missing the tape. That seems to give me more accurate results..

~Mark