Truck coolant flush

[slowpokedodge]

I did the truck coolant flush on my truck. I don't know why but I got a 190 temp replacement thermostat. The one I took out was a 180. Anyway, Will the 190 be ok to run in the summer in Mississippi. I did notice the temperature got hotter quicker on my trip to work this morning. The one in the truck was the original one. Still worked like it should. It was 38 degrees this morning....Yahoo,fall has fell. My truck only held 5 gallons instead of 6.

[2000Ram2500]

Im not sure what temp my thermostat is but it seems to kick in right at 190. My coolant temp is usually in the ballpark of 192 once its actually up to temp. I live in northern AZ so cold winters and hot summers. Does fine during the summer here the only thing that gets hot is my trans but i think the cooler is to blame there.

 

I will say though it does NOT like towing in hot weather. The weigh station said i was just over 18k lbs combined. Pulling a steep grade it got to 244 for the engine and 266 for the trans before i could pull over. Cant say the thermostat is the culprit but maybe a 180* thermostat would have helped

[Mopar1973Man]

Wanna hear strange I'm running 180F thermostat but with the amount of timing I run the coolant temp hangs at 186 to 190 on the pavement when I stop at a light it drops to 175F.

[dripley]

I bought a Cummins tstat once. According to Cummins mine came with a 180 in it, but i took 190 out of it and the gauge always read around 193.

[Guest 04Mach1]

I put a 200 t-stat in my 01 about 4 or 5 years ago and never have had any over heating issues. All but the last year were in Denver, CO which has cold winters and has seen triple digit summer temps. Now I'm in Northwest New Mexico where Winters are mild and summer sees high 90s to 110's and still no signs of overheating. The temp gauge with the 200 t-stat is always a hair over the zero on the "190" when the engine is at operating temperature in my 01, not that I exactly trust the gauge since it's an OEM POS that is only designed to give the driver a nice warm fuzzy feeling that everything is ok.

[Bullet]

1 hour ago, 04Mach1 said:

I put a 200 t-stat in my 01 about 4 or 5 years ago and never have had any over heating issues. All but the last year were in Denver, CO which has cold winters and has seen triple digit summer temps. Now I'm in Northwest New Mexico where Winters are mild and summer sees high 90s to 110's and still no signs of overheating. The temp gauge with the 200 t-stat is always a hair over the zero on the "190" when the engine is at operating temperature in my 01, not that I exactly trust the gauge since it's an OEM POS that is only designed to give the driver a nice warm fuzzy feeling that everything is ok.

I'm running a 200 degree thermostat too and also have had no problems with overheating in the coastal Texas heat.  My needle sits exactly where yours does when running for a good while.  We had temps in the lower 20's last winter and my heater was putting out some serious heat.  Got to feeling like a sauna in my regular cab.

[slowpokedodge]

Thanks. Guess I'm in the clear.

[Mopar1973Man]

On 10/22/2018 at 10:41 PM, Bullet said:

I'm running a 200 degree thermostat too and also have had no problems with overheating in the coastal Texas heat.  My needle sits exactly where yours does when running for a good while.  We had temps in the lower 20's last winter and my heater was putting out some serious heat.  Got to feeling like a sauna in my regular cab.

 

Even with my 190*F I've ran for 16 years the vent temperature at 0*F could still be hot. Yeah, that thermometer shows 161*F out of the center vents. 

[Bullet]

19 minutes ago, Mopar1973Man said:

 

Even with my 190*F I've ran for 16 years the vent temperature at 0*F could still be hot. Yeah, that thermometer shows 161*F out of the center vents. 

Cool pic...I have measured the AC temps before but never the heater temps.  That's higher than I thought it would be...

[Mopar1973Man]

That will only occur if your HVAC case isn't all plugged up with debris or the heater core isn't full of scale build up. Remember scale build-up is caused by pH balance of the coolant going corrosive, not because of mineral in the water being I've never used distilled water, and been using strictly well and creek water for the entire life of my truck. If your city water is highly chlorinated or hard water then your stuck using distilled water.  Sorry to say I'm extremely lucky to have nearly pure water flowing down the creek. 

 

This customer was having a hard time trying to stay warm in his truck. When I finished with power washing the evaporator and replaced the heater core he then complained that it got too damn hot in the cab and he had to roll down the windows to keep from sweating to death. 

 

 

[Bullet]

That's some pretty nasty looking stuff.  I was dreading seeing what mine looks like one day but original heater core is still going strong.  Mine shouldn't be too bad then judging by the heat I get.  I have changed the coolant several times and always 50/50 with distilled water.  Neither me or my truck will drink the city water here...?

[015point9]

7 minutes ago, Bullet said:

That's some pretty nasty looking stuff.  I was dreading seeing what mine looks like one day but original heater core is still going strong.  Mine shouldn't be too bad then judging by the heat I get.  I have changed the coolant several times and always 50/50 with distilled water.  Neither me or my truck will drink the city water here...?

We get in mail a water report once a year from water district.  In that brief report a link to a "full" report is listed that gives more details of alot.  Worth looking at for stuff like ph level and arsinc. Heavy metal ype stuff.  

We had campground over 20 years, and had to do a water test every quarter because state said our well was classified as "community" well.  Report showed year after year our water was very good.  Made great coffee also.  My annorod thing in RV lasted long time at campground.  But when we fill timed in RV,   places like Yuma Az on well water we could only get 4 months on annorod.  Big difference in water place to place.  

[Guest 04Mach1]

8 hours ago, Mopar1973Man said:

That will only occur if your HVAC case isn't all plugged up with debris or the heater core isn't full of scale build up. Remember scale build-up is caused by pH balance of the coolant going corrosive, not because of mineral in the water being I've never used distilled water, and been using strictly well and creek water for the entire life of my truck. If your city water is highly chlorinated or hard water then your stuck using distilled water.  Sorry to say I'm extremely lucky to have nearly pure water flowing down the creek. 

 

This customer was having a hard time trying to stay warm in his truck. When I finished with power washing the evaporator and replaced the heater core he then complained that it got too damn hot in the cab and he had to roll down the windows to keep from sweating to death. 

 

 

Hmmm... 

 

I definitely need to take the HVAC boxes apart in both of my 2nd gens. I've noticed over the past couple of years the air flow is slowly getting less and less out of the vents on both trucks. Seeing that picture makes me wonder if that may be the problem with mine. 

 

I have to say that you are extremely lucky to have free access to top quality H2O. In Grants, NM where all water is pumped out of the ground a typical water heater is rusted and leaking at any where between 5-8 years and heating is very poor due to calcium build up. Faucet life is even worse at a typical life of 1-2 years no matter what material it's made with or how expensive it is. I definitely miss Aurora, CO water which was reservoir water and much better quality. Oh well I'll be back North in Aurora or Denver soon enough, just got to get some irons out of the fire before I can make the move.

Edited October 25, 2018 by 04Mach1

[Mopar1973Man]

1/4 of million miles...

[AH64ID]

On 10/22/2018 at 6:54 PM, Mopar1973Man said:

Wanna hear strange I'm running 180F thermostat but with the amount of timing I run the coolant temp hangs at 186 to 190 on the pavement when I stop at a light it drops to 175F.

 

Pretty normal.

 

I run a 190° and cruise at 188-193° depending on ambient temp and load. At a light it drops down to 182-185° depending on ambient temp and load. 

 

Why drop to a 180°? Although marginal, a 190° will yield better combustion/mileage than a 180°. 

 

I've considered running a 200° for the gains, but don't want to add 10° to my oil temp.