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11:28:25 - 04/26/2024
General Dakota Board
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modain
GenIII
 
9/05/2006
21:57:55
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 Subject: No More Overheat Worries
IP: Logged
Message:
OK, first off thanks to all that offered suggestions and helped me out with this "mod".
This past weekend I gave my truck's new radiator (installed the previous weekend) the acid test. I made my annual Labor Day vacation to Kernville, CA (tubing on the Kern River). In previous years I had to baby the truck up the hills and run some sections without the A/C and with the heater on to keep the temp guage out of the red zone. This didn't make for a happy wife.
Well no more! I made the runs up the hills full steam ahead with the A/C on the entire trip. The ambient temp was probaly the hottest (both ways - Friday and Tuesday) it has ever been when I have made the drive. The temp was triple digits most of the way, and when it did cool off it got down to a frosty 94*.
The hottest spot in the journey was going north on HWY 14 pushing up to the Escondido Summit - my overhead display showed 110* outside! This was my biggest trouble spot with my other radiator.
The temp guage usually rode in the center, and the highest it ever got was about 2/3 through the normal range. When it got to that point the fan clutch kicked in (it sounds like an airplane in flight) and quickly brought the guage back down to the center. This cycle repeated multiple times...
The fan clutch was working hard pretty much the entire trip, but I never had a concern about the engine temp after I saw the first heat spike get killed right away going through Newhall (104*).
Whoo-Hoo! The best $250 I have spent on this truck so far.
If you are new to this story you can catch up on the details here.
What's your left foot doing?
=========================================
2002 Graphite QC SLT Plus, 4.7L, NV3500, Superchips 3715, 3.92 LSD, loads o'fun...
2001 Patriot Blue Durango SLT, 4.7L, 45RFE, Superchips 3715, 3.55 Open (for now)
1999 Forest Green Dakota RC Sport, 2.5L, NV1500, 3.55 Open
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GraphiteDak
GenIII
9/05/2006
22:11:06
|  RE: No More Overheat Worries
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Message:
Well your pictures are gone so I can't see them.
So tell me what the deal was since we BOTH have the HD cooling package.
Was yours actually the WRONG radiator from the factory?????
As seen in my OTHER post about towing, I am towing OVER my limit and temp never went over 2/3 with the A/C on.
How big and heavy is your toy hauler?
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modain
GenIII
9/06/2006
02:03:48
|  RE: No More Overheat Worries
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Message:
The pictures are "gone" because the system I have them on has been turned off since Friday.
It gets the room real hot (it's a ProLiant 1600), and I had the house closed up and no A/C over the weekend. Now that we are back into a stretch of 100+ temps I'll keep it off until it cools down. It's hard to cool my house with all my computer gear running... (I'll let you know when I fire it back up.)
The truck got built with the correct radiator. But the problem stems from this scenario: the radiator for an auto tranny has a fluid cooler in the right side tank, the manual tranny doesn't need a fluid cooler. So... since the radiator is only cooling the engine DC probably figured that they could get by with a smaller radiator than what is needed for an auto tranny equipped truck. I checked the numbers and the parts book. I have the correct radiator for the max-cooling option.
I have a buddy at work that has a 2002 Durango with the regular duty cooling. Guess what his radiator looks like: it's the same as the manual max-cooling radiator with the auto tranny cooler in the side tank. I'd hate to see what the regular cooling manual tranny radiator is!
My Durango has the HD cooling. The radiator is 1.5" and two rows. It would be the same thing that's in your truck.
My toy hauler is 4200# dry. Loaded it's probably near or over 5500# (without carrying fresh water). I've never weighed, but I'd take a guess that I am at or over my GCWR.
And yes, this truck is a BEAST too.
What's your left foot doing?
=========================================
2002 Graphite QC SLT Plus, 4.7L, NV3500, Superchips 3715, 3.92 LSD, loads o'fun...
2001 Patriot Blue Durango SLT, 4.7L, 45RFE, Superchips 3715, 3.55 Open (for now)
1999 Forest Green Dakota RC Sport, 2.5L, NV1500, 3.55 Open
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Kowalski
GenIII
9/06/2006
16:12:32
| RE: No More Overheat Worries
IP: Logged
Message:
Cool !
Lead, follow, or get out of the way
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GraphiteDak
GenIII
9/07/2006
01:13:20
| RE: No More Overheat Worries
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Message:
So was the radiator swap a night and day difference? SO far no prob for me. It's funny how well a two row ALUMINUM radiator will work.
In the past, we always wanted FOUR ROW radiators :p
Mine also has the aux tranny cooler and all that. When I bought the truck, it just happened to be there as I bought it as is on a lot.
Now I'm needing every bit of the HD cooling/towing package!
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modain
GenIII
9/07/2006
02:16:59
| RE: No More Overheat Worries
IP: Logged
Message:
Yes, it was a night and day difference. These aluminum radiators bleed of heat pretty well, but my original one just couldn't do it fast enough when towing in heat and hills.
The two radiators have the same size side tanks. It is possible that the one row radiator core holds the same amount of liquid as the two row core. The tube looks nearly 3/4" wide as opposed to the two smaller ones. But there is more surface area for air contact to transfer the heat with the 2-row design.
It would be great to have a three row core, but there really isn't much room to stuff one in there unless things get moved around - specifically the condenser and tranny cooler. But then there might be clearance issues with the bumper. Since my truck only has the condenser in front it could work. I'll keep that in mind if I ever feel the need for a custom fabbed 3-row radiator. I've got the side tanks. :-)
What's your left foot doing?
=========================================
2002 Graphite QC SLT Plus, 4.7L, NV3500, Superchips 3715, 3.92 LSD, loads o'fun...
2001 Patriot Blue Durango SLT, 4.7L, 45RFE, Superchips 3715, 3.55 Open (for now)
1999 Forest Green Dakota RC Sport, 2.5L, NV1500, 3.55 Open
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modain
GenIII
9/07/2006
22:57:34
| RE: No More Overheat Worries
IP: Logged
Message:
Hey GraphiteDak, the temperature has fallen so my server is back on. I have a pathetic upload speed (128k) on my DSL so the pictures will come through pretty slow...
What's your left foot doing?
=========================================
2002 Graphite QC SLT Plus, 4.7L, NV3500, Superchips 3715, 3.92 LSD, loads o'fun...
2001 Patriot Blue Durango SLT, 4.7L, 45RFE, Superchips 3715, 3.55 Open (for now)
1999 Forest Green Dakota RC Sport, 2.5L, NV1500, 3.55 Open
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GraphiteDak
GenIII
9/08/2006
02:27:31
| RE: No More Overheat Worries
IP: Logged
Message:
YOU..... were not kidding about the SLOW speed getting them pictures. i think it took 5 minutes to get them all!
One even timed out and I had to right click and get it to load that last picture!
Anyway. Looking at your pix, I have some questions.
The plastic shroud/tanks were fairly easy to pull out leaving radiator installed???
AND.... looking at it with the shroud removed. It LOOKS like the cross braces that go from the radiator support down to the frame run on either side of the single electric fan. And LOOK like they are close to the radiator.
So... my idea of removing the single fan and putting two side by side would be difficult with them cross braces there????
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modain
GenIII
9/08/2006
12:28:02
| RE: No More Overheat Worries
IP: Logged
Message:
I'm a cheapskate at some things. My kids complain about the DSL speed sometimes (768/128), but I reply, "we can go back to dialup if you'd like!" (Idle threat.) Maybe some day I'll upgrade my service...
The shroud removal: the top half comes out real easy after removing the two bolts holding it in place. If you remove the upper hose it slips right out, otherwise you gotta do the "twist/tip/tilt" routine to clear the hose and fan. You need to plug up the windshield washer and overflow hoses so the tanks don't leak out. The bottom half of the shroud is held in with two bolts also. But I had to remove the right side bolt from underneath the truck. Had to contort my arms through the frame and cross member. It might be easy to reach from the top if the lower hose is removed, don't know.
I just left it (the bottom half) in after taking it loose. Can't remember now if is was because the e-fan prevented it from coming out. I left the e-fan in because I couldn't easily disconnect the wiring. There was room to shove them out of the way, so that's what I did.
The cross brace: if I remember correctly, the e-fan sits closer to the radiator than the cross brace does. You can easily investigate this yourself. I think there is plenty of room under the assembled shroud to go wider with the fan(s), but the cross brace would limit that to just a little larger than the stock one's size.
What's your left foot doing?
=========================================
2002 Graphite QC SLT Plus, 4.7L, NV3500, Superchips 3715, 3.92 LSD, loads o'fun...
2001 Patriot Blue Durango SLT, 4.7L, 45RFE, Superchips 3715, 3.55 Open (for now)
1999 Forest Green Dakota RC Sport, 2.5L, NV1500, 3.55 Open
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GraphiteDak
GenIII
9/09/2006
00:00:17
| RE: No More Overheat Worries
IP: Logged
Message:
Well I was wanting to go DUAL electric fans. With a 2 stage fan controller to bring on one, then two. Or both in series which would make them run slow, then both in parallel at full speed. Haven't decided yet.
If I could use some modfets large enough, I'd almost ramp the speeds up vs. temp that way.
Just to do something different.
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