More help
 

You guys were a BIG help with the last problem i had. Hope you can do it again.

Engine tends to run warm even during cold weather. Takes it a while but the temps edge up until it ingages the fan. Cools off good and then repeats. Sometime is even shoots down like it got a burst of water from somewhere. Almost like a thermostat opened. Had the thermostats replace when i had the last problem fixed that you helped with (oil comsumption). Need to get this thing repaird before HOT weather gets here. I have also power washed the radiator to make sure nothing was trapped in the cooling fins.

:sad:

It could be a head gasket starting to go bad, check the outside of the engine block for dried coolant leaking from the sides of the head drying up on the engine block.

What make of engine do you have and what is the mileage , etc. ?

Cat 3126 with 150,000 miles.

It sounds perfectly normal to me. Temp climbs, fan comes on, temp drops. Could just be your new thermostats are working and your old ones weren't.

Did the same thing with the old thermostats also. The problem is it can be 40 degrees outside and the fan comes on. I agree that the fan cyclying on and off is perfectly normal. The part that bothers me is, it has never did this before and i do not think the fan should be cyclying on as often as it does when it is cold outside. It cycles on and off in less than a mile and does this continously during the trip. The temps continue to climb slowly during the trip but once they reach the max temp (205) the fan will cycle on and cintinue cycling from that point on. I had the upper hose replaced and the thermostats. I have never changed the radiator cap. Does this sound like it could be a potential problem. Would prefer to eliminate the small/cheap things first.

I believe your fan clutch is bad, a fan clutch shouldn't cycle that much. In normal driving the ram effect of the air going through your grill is enough to keep the engine cool.

The clutch fan should only engage when the engine is working harder, like climbing hills, etc.

The fan only comes on when the temp gauge reaches 205 degrees. The temps rise and lower as the fan comes off and on.

Come on guys. As many miles as you have logged and as many drivers as you know, you guys have seen or heard it all. Give me things it could be. Summer is coming and i am going to be in real trouble if i do not get it fixed soon.

Ronm I don't know if this will relate to your problem because when I had this problem it was on a S60.

Fan off and on constantly. Turned out being a small diaphram switch on the air conditioning compressor. Even if the air conditioning was off when this switch failed the fan would still cycle on and off, even at 180*. Check around your air conditoning compressor for any wiring that might be plugged in wrong or not all the way.

What gets me is why is your truck getting to 205 anyway. I know the newer motors run a little hotter. But isn't 205 a little warmer than normal?

I drive older stuff and I stay at 185 unless I am pulling hard. Fan comes on at 210. Stays on tell about 190 and then I go back to 185 if I am back on flat ground.

Did this start right after the last repair for the oil consumptsion?

If so is it possible they put the thermstats in up side down. I don't even know if that is possible but you never know.

If your charge air cooler is leaking bad the motor can run warm.

I guess if it was me I would think back to see if this started after the last repair and then figure out what was taken apart and possible not put back together properly that might cause the engine to get hot.

Check for foamy oil --- Head gasket


Check for compression bubbles in coolant ---Head gasket

Your fan clutch needs air pressure to disingage and to stay disingaged.
Do you have a leak in the air line going to the solinoid that ingages and disingages you fan clutch.

I don't think it is the fan clutch itself, something is telling it to ingage and then disingage.

When your truck was worked on the mechanics have a hard time climbing around to get to some parts of the motor and they step in allot of places that probably shouldn't be stepped on. Maybe a wire in a harnes got stepped on or a plug is partially unplugged.

What was the normal operating temp of your truck before all this started?

I know you are pulling your hair out. Do you haul real heavy? My fan hasn't come on since last August!! With 49,000 on the deck.

Hope something here helps

Mike

Thanks so much for the reply. The problem started abt. 2-3 months before i had the oil problem taken car of. I do not pull heavy. What i pull is a Renegade motorhome on a FL70 chassis and cab. The living quarters are 28' long. I would guess that the motorhome weighs around 15,000 lbs. I pull a 32' Renegade stacker trailer. This is a race car hauler. Its weight is approx. 18,000 loaded, for a total weight of 33,000 lbs. Like i said, the temps at 40 degrees outside slowly gets up to 205 which is when the fan comes on and cools it down to the operating temp of around 190. Once it reaches the 205 mark the temps to from 190 to 205 for the entire trip, which cycles the fan on and off. I think the engine is indeed running warm. I just can not figure out why. Once the fan comes on it cools the water down. But, right back up it goes again. The less RPM's i turn the cooler the water temps are.

Ronm Has this set up (truck & trailer) ever run cool? I mean did it run good then just start warming up one day? Or did you just buy one or the other and it has run warm ever since?

If I am picturing your set up in my mind correctly you have a pretty big blunt front to your race car hualer. I don't know what the 3126 Cat is for HP but is it possible that you are right at the point of being maxxed out and your motor is working hard all the time?

Just a thought---- It sounds like when you started to get warm is about the time ULSD started up and allot of guys were saying that they were showing 5-10* more water temp.

Do you have a fan over ride switch? Or if you don't could you wire one in? If you do maybe try turning it off and see if the heat levels out say at maybe 207. But if it keeps climbing when it is 40* out you are either maxxed out on what you are hauling, maybe driving to fast creating to much wind resistance with the smaller motor or you have a problem.

Any after market grill treatments installed, blocking air.

Brakes dragging.

Maybe a wind deflector on the roof of the tow truck is needed??

Are you pushing water out?

Is there a air dam on the bottom of the grill or bumper that is missing or broken?

Mike

Or --- I know you said that you power washed your radiator. But in some cases there is a Trans cooler, air conditioning condensor, water radiator, and a charge air cooler all in line. Maybe somewhere inside one or the other it is almost blocked with bugs and dirt and the power washer can not get that far in. And the air just can not flow through all of them and your water radiator is more than likely the last one in line.

Mike

Maybe everything is plugged up with those Florida Love Bugs from hauling the late model down to Volusia?? What kind of racing do you do?

Did not just buy it. I have owned the truck for over 5 years. It has always run cool in the fall, winter and spring. Only times the fan would come on would be in the heat of the summer. Then the fan would cycle on in what i would consider normal operation. The problem started abt. 2-3 months prior to correcting the oil consumption problem. The living quarters of the extends over the cab of the truck with the front of it sloped towards the back to delflect air. The trailer we pull is the same ride height of the living quarters.

I do not have a fan overide switch. I will see if i can figure out how to wire one in. Is there anyway to do that off the A/C switch? The water resevoir does not seem to be pushing any water out. Brakes do not seem to be overheating. Had new rears put on abt. 4 months prior to the problem occuring. Have not had any additions to the grill area. Nothing is missing on the front that i am aware of. Everything seems to be intact. Starting at the front there is a transmission cooler followed by the turbo cooler and then the radiator. I guess it is possible there is debris stuck in there somewhere. I quess my next move will be to take all of that apart and clean it. If the problem persist i have at least eliminated those items.

Is it possible that the water pump vanes have worn and are not moving as much water as before? I do not see any indications of a cylinder head gasket leaking.

Thanks for all the help. Any suggestions are appreciated. Even if they do not provide a solution at least it helps me learn. Keep em coming.

By the way we dragrace. We run from Fl all the way up to NJ, Tn and Ky. We run a Top ET dragster, a jr dragster and soon a Top ET El Camino.

This seems a little odd for cooler weather. I'ld verify the rad is clean both internally & externally. Might be worth taking off the air to air & condenser etc to get everything clean. Its sometimes hard to clean all the way through everything with out splitting things apart. If you remove the top rad hose you hould be able to look at the core tubes to see how clean they are internally. My guess would be an airflow or coolant flow problem.

Btw, what fixed the oil problem?

At this point from what i have read on here so far i would have to agree that it is a flow problem. Either water or air. Do the vanes on the water pump go bad? If not, what does?

Oil consumtion has not completely stopped but is better. I had the o-rings on the injectors replaced.

What I learned last year...power washing through the front of the grill is the WRONG thing to be doing...all the crap gets into the charge-air, oil cooler, ac cooler, and radiator traveling through the front...the same direction you are spraying the water. The only way you are going to get that crap out, is to dismount all the components up to the radiator...and wash or air blow the crap out from the back. Found that out at International dealership in Portland OR.

It was already pointed out to get your A/C switch's and your fan clutch checked. I just got my truck out of the shop, from having the fan clutch replaced. It went from engaging intermitantly to on all the time.....was told when I picked the truck up that I was lucky..the condition the fan clutch was in, they usually come apart and take out the radiator.

Ok, its a cat - have the water pump checked for the impeller slipping on the shaft.

Also, there is a hose from the top of the thermostat housing going to the radiator, maybe 5/16 or 3/8 inch hose. Run the engine, pull the hose off the radiator, it should be flowing a fair amount of water. If not, there could be mud plugging that hose port from the back side of the thermostat housing, or your water pump could be slipping like I said above.

Airflow is important also, as others have said on here. You often have an a/c condenser, the charge air cooler, maybe a trans cooler and finally the radiator, just one after the other. Maybe its just bugs.

It is not the fan. It comes on as the engine temps rise like it should. I will check the hose and clean all the cooling equipment on the front of the engine. Soon as it gets warm enough. Thanks so much for all the help. Like i said before. Keep the info flowing.

Be sure to wash from the engine side out to the front. Or you may just push the junk deeper into the radiator. Also use a good citric based degreaser. It'll dissolve the road grime.

I have seem some water pump vanes wear out and drive mechanics nuts. But that would be the last thing at 150k miles that it should be.

I took the A/C cond. cooler off and washed from the engine side out. I sprayed both CAC and the radiator with a good degreaser before washing. Looked like there was enough room between the CAC and the radiator for debris to fall out the bottom. I am also going to change the radiator cap. We have a race in Farmington, NC next weekend will see how it does then.

Well, took the truck out on a trip this weekend. After cleaning the cooler and radiator with a water nozzle and water hose from the engine side the temps are still coming up. Runs up to 205, the fan comes on and the temps go back down. The cycle starts all over again. Could the radiator cap cause this? Gotta get this thing fixed before summer gets here or i am in deep trouble. Thanks for any help guys. Would have been better off to use a power washer instead of just house water preasure? Thanks for the help guys.

Ild be surprised if a rad cap would fix this but it certainly is worth a shot. Is it still gtting warm?

check water tank & all water line. make sure there ar no restrictions anywhere. if non are obstructed my bet would be the water pump gear or vanes

If you use a pressure washer to clean the radiator or CAC, be careful to only spray straight through the core, otherwise if you spray at an angle the pressure can knock the fins over sideways, resulting in no airflow at all in the affected area.

BTW, the late model Cat engines in the fleet where I work (C12, C13 & C15) run up to 210, then the fan comes on and the temp drops to 180. Lather rinse & repeat all day long.

I thought that was abnormal so I consulted the Cat literature regarding those engines and that is indeed the proper operating parameters.

I would suggest you access the factory info for your particular engine and compare it to the temp readings you're experiencing.

I would put money on the water pump weak or starting to go ! :sad:

Belts look ok?

Hoses old, collapsing or kinking?, unraveling inside slowing flow?

I'm not familiar with your engine so I'm just throwing things out there!

You said it was a Cat,,, fur balls plugging the radiator?

Sorry just couldn't resist that ! :roll:

:lol: :lol: Nope, furr balls was the first thing i checked. :lol: :lol:

Come to find out it was the belt. It had one bad spot in it. It seems that when it got to the bad spot it would stop turning the pump. Everytime i looked at the belt it seemed fine. Bad spot would always be in the pulley where i could not see it. Great call on the belt. I was getting ready to put a new pump in it.

The belt had a bad spot were it wouldn't turn the pump ??

That is correct. Not sure why it did not burn off but it did not. I changed the belt and the problem has gone away. Took it for a test drive withoutthe trailer and it worked great. Took everyting out on the road last weekend and everything is just fine again. One thing i can say abt. this problem. With all the suggestions and all the things that i tried i have learned a lot. Thanks to all who helped. Your suggestions and comments are greatly appreciated. Thanks a bunch guys.

I have a Series 60 that I noticed a little dried coolant on the front right side of the block. It was about 1/8" wide and a couple inches long. Detroit guy on the phone said it's most likely a loose clamp or hose, but can't tell until he see's it. If it is a head gasket how long do you think it will last?

No one can say for certain how long something will last like that. Find a shop with either a dyno or someone well versed in the 60 series.