Hot tires and stuff.

[R.Smith]

I noticed my truck was riding a lot rougher over the last week or two. The front end was especially hard on roads I drive daily so, I checked the tire pressure and found that the heat wave (it was 103 today) had increased my tire pressure by 10 lbs! I put a thermometer on the hood of the truck while it sat in the parking lot and it read 107 in the sun...and it's a white truck. I can't imagine how hot the asphalt is.

I usually take 195 to and from the shop but, there have been so many jams due to overheated cars lately that I'm scared I'll get stuck in traffic and overheat myself. My truck seems to stay between 180 aqnd 190 but, the other night I sat in the McDonalds drive thru for about 10 minutes and it crept up close to 200. Went right back down as soon as I started moving though.

[papabug71]

AS long as your radiator isint plugged up, you should be fine

My truck runs 190* no matter what. I could idle it all day long in the heat & it wouldnt get over 190. Even if you get stuck in traffic, 200* isint going to burn it up. Give er' a little throttle to get the water moving & the fan speed up. If its starts getting too hot for comfort, turn the heater on full blast. Sounds crazy, but it will lower the water temp a little & every little bit counts. Only downside to it is you might roast to death in the cab

[averagef250]

The stock thermostat is supposed to be 195. Your engine will likely run better and your radiator will work better when you run a 195 thermostat. Not to mention there's a night/day difference between how your heater works in the winter between 180/195 thermostats.

If your engine is sound 210, even up to 220 won't phase it under light load. I've found the bump radiators are adequately sized for stockish engines at max power at any outside temp. If you're really worried about it run premium fuel. Premium will give you a little extra edge against pinging from extra combustion heat and can save your engine from having it's temps spiral up from pinging under load.

[bb429power]

My maverick is the same way but it gets hotter. Dang 3 core radiators, if its that bad try getting a lower temp. thermostat. If you still have problems then try stuff like a bigger ratio of coolant to water. There can be 70/30 I think, but its usually 50/50. If its real bad or if you want assurance you can put an electric fan on it or a good fan shroud installed properly. High volume water pump, or different stuff like that. Its your choice, I would try something small before I take a big step though.

I'm just letting you know of things you COULD do. It doesn't sound like it runs too hot but I'm just saying if you get stuck somewhere you don't want to be worrying about overheating.

[Ranchero50]

Seen a lot of busted big rig tires on the road this week, heat's hard on stuff. The trucks will be fine. I run 205 in the stang with a 195 thermostat running 2500rpm. It'll cool to 200 running 2000rpm.

A lower thermostat does nothing to help an overheating cooling system, that's just fools talk. High volume water pumps are almost as bad.

Jamie

[R.Smith]

I'm not really worried about it. It just surprised me that it went up close to 200 because it's always been so consistant.

I put the warmest thermostat I could get my hands on in it when I put the cam in. That would be a 185 unit. Before that it had a 175 in it. I always run 93 octane and I've back flushed the cooling system twice since Christmas. I think it's fine. I tend to have a guage fixation and freak out whenever anything out of the ordinary happens.

[cdeal28078]

Do you have a good fan shroud on there? For idle that is pretty important I think. Are you running an aftermarket water temp. gauge? I have a mechanical water temp in my 71 and it fascinates me to watch it sometimes. I can see the thermostat open and close. I shut it off to go in a store and the temp will slowly climb up to about 200 but as soon as it is started you can watch it cool right back to about 185. The are pretty accurite
Clint

[bluemoose]

R,

You can fix that gauge fixation with some black electrical tape. Check engine light has been on in my Volvo for four years, I haven't had to look at it in 3 1/2.

[R.Smith]

I have the original shroud and it's in excellent shape, and the first thing I did when I got the truck was install mechanical heat, oil press, volt and vaccum guages.

As for covering the guages, that wouldn't work because I actually LIKE having them. I plan to install more. Tranny temp, oil temp, throttle body vac.... Do I need all that? No, but it would look cool and I'd feel like I was flying a jet!

If I could only find a fuel guage that reads lbs instead of gallons.