Jump to content
  • Welcome To Mopar1973Man.Com LLC

    We are a privately owned support forum for the Dodge Ram Cummins Diesels. All information is free to read for everyone. To interact or ask questions you must have a subscription plan to enable all other features beyond reading. Please go over to the Subscription Page and pick out a plan that fits you best. At any time you wish to cancel the subscription please go back over to the Subscription Page and hit the Cancel button and your subscription will be stopped. All subscriptions are auto-renewing. 

How do you keep the bugs out of your radiator ?


Recommended Posts

On my 1999 I used to go to the hardware store and buy a small roll of window screen.  Each spring I would put in a new piece and remove it in the fall.  But while traveling pulling hard grades hauling heavy and hotter weather I have over heated a time or two.  Just would like to see what others have been doing with this issue also.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ok more cowbell.  I mean window screen   I dealt with crankcase vent plugged radiator years ago.  I added  a piece of hose   No rust on the bottom of my truck    But I made the hose to long the first time. Moisture settled in the bottom of the curve at 15-20 below and froze while I was at work and I remote started the truck when I drove by in my company truck needless to say I lost about 3 guarts out of the front seal . That was expensive to repair.  The boys at dodge had never seen a rasp before.  But why call the owner and ask.  They put the belt on so tight I had to cut it off with n

my pocket knife to get home.  I was afraid the rasp pump would frag    I have that t shirt   

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had just enough screen left.  Time to put some miles on this old 24 v.   Burning diesel and rattling down the road   My friends say it’s to loud.  Old John Deere 2 cylinder tractor under load   Cummins pulling a   grade at 1000 degree egt and a Harley with good pipes rumble are music to my ears.  Real men make noise

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Owner

I know down south you guys get lots and lots of bugs with swamps and more humid. There is times when we get big waves of bugs. I've tried the screens but always metal screens. The hold up the best. The second part is don't attach the screen to the coolers but to the grill. Now the bug are easy to hose off the grill and not risk damage to the coolers. Biggest impact that I took in the grill was a Grouse. I think the metal screen prevent the bid from getting through the plastic.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, Mopar1973Man said:

Then Thor I'll be looking for a good 4 inch exhaust with muffler. I've gotta put a muzzle on this one. Mainly where I work I've gotta be quiet.

 

FTE resonator. 30" version leaves enough straight pipe to say its modified but removes nearly all the drone and quiets it down. I have the 17" on my 01, keeps a lot more volume, but you can still hold a conversation in the cab with the windows up while going down the highway.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, Silverwolf2691 said:

FTE resonator. 30"

That's the one I got in 5" and it made a huge difference in cab noise, plus I got some of that robbery stuff with foil on it for sound systems, much nicer inside the cab now. 

 

As for the screen I found some tougher stuff that has maybe fiberglass in it, all I know it's not easy to tear and it's not metal. I just use a broom and knock the bugs off of it once in awhile. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wonder what it'd take to get a big sheet of the screen they use on old John Deere tractors, with the finger grooves for easy cleaning (pleated, if you will).  More filter area per square foot of radiator.  Mounting to inside of grill is good idea, but most of my biggest bugs/rocks seem to go through the bumper holes so may want to put something there, too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The old jd tractors have shutters as well.  But the shutters were pretty delicate and lots of moving parts and clogged up pretty easy and we’re taken off and throwed  behind the shed. Seed shacks and gunny sacks were used to try to make them run warmer to burn the tractor fuel common in that time. About 10 cents a gallon maybe a bit less. They started them on gas and switched over to tractor fuel and run them dry at night on gas so it would start the next am Bugs where not a big problem at 12 mile per hour top speed on the hiway   And in the winter they open the pet cock on the radiator to let the water drain out.  Antifreeze was expensive.  Water was brought out from the kitchen wood stove and poured in for a warm start. I still remember the frozen water puddle under the tractors  in the morning when I came outside when I was a kid And my uncle dumping hot water in the radiator . The first thing I ever drove with a motor was a jd  I was about 9 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm glad my 2150 has the screens with finger grooves, and I don't mow at 12 MPH.

 

My old WD45 had such huge gaps in the radiator fins, most grass just blew on through! Moths would clog it until I shut it off so they could fly away...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 7/22/2021 at 8:02 AM, Dieselfuture said:

That's the one I got in 5" and it made a huge difference in cab noise, plus I got some of that robbery stuff with foil on it for sound systems, much nicer inside the cab now. 

 

11 hours ago, Tractorman said:

Is that a politically correct way to say, "stolen stuff" ?

 

- John

 

10 hours ago, Dieselfuture said:

I'm not sure if autocorrect got me again or it was me this time. I was never good at spelling anyways

 

@Dieselfuture, I think you got auto corrected.. think you meant rubbery

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Staff
On 7/22/2021 at 8:02 AM, Dieselfuture said:

plus I got some of that robbery stuff with foil on it for sound systems,

 Just for future reference, it's called dynamat. Not sure if that's the company that makes it or what.

 I was planning on doing the same thing to mine. I'd like to add carpet as well. Mine is a basic truck, no frills.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...