Well, I made it back. It’s hotter than a half fucked fox in a forest fire today and I drove the 50 something miles back without my rig overheating.
It was 90 degrees at 1:30 this afternoon when I left so I know damn good and well it’s hotter than that now. They were predicting an even 100 Degree day here the last time I saw a weather report on Friday.
A couple posts back Greg mentioned an experience with a bad radiator cap causing an overheating issue.
My rig ran hot all the way up there the other day so I remembered that and stopped in and picked up a new radiator cap when I was still a few miles from my destination.
I put it on this morning before I left, packed my stuff and crossed my fingers.
The temp gauge started climbing, almost pegged and then the magic happened. It came right back down to where it’s been running and away I went.
Thermostat sticking a bit now too looks like.
It started showing a little warm going up a big ass hill about twenty miles down the road but after that it was normal.
So the fucking radiator cap decided to shit the bed. The way it was acting was more like it wasn’t getting enough air but there it is.
I’m going to swap out the thermostat here real soon just because I didn’t like the way it got so warm before it opened.
So I made it but there is a bunch of crap to sort through and get rid of.
The stuff that didn’t pass muster that I won’t be using again, all the extra crap I took and didn’t use and everything I did use all needs to be sorted through and either shit canned or put away.
I’m still sweating like a whore in church and I have been sitting down here for at least 15-20 minutes.
It is looking like Spring lasted about a week and now it’s straight to Summer.
Yay.
I had a good time now and want to go camping for real as soon as I get the chance.
This was just a test run.
Good call on the radiator cap, same issue here. I’ve got a custom truck with the GM 6.2 diesel that I’ve been fighting with similar problems of overheating indications for a couple of years, but not truly overheating. I’ve come to the conclusion I’ve got a air pocket next to the temperature sensor. Everything is new or modified and my IR temperature sensor shows perfect temps all over the radiator, thermostat housing, engine, etc. Electric fans blow at the correct time, etc.
There’s kits that will allow you to draw a vacuum on your cooling system and then suck the coolant back into the engine. Supposed to be better than bleed and re-bleed.
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I would look into whether or not your temp sending unit and or gauge weren’t reading off a bit by hooking up a mechanical gauge and seeing what that reads.
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Good one Phil, I bet you can’t wait to get back to the grind! Open note to Cederq, and any other grouchy old farts in Phil’s crew, with kidney problems. I’ve just read of the Australian & New Zealand Paired Kidney Exchange (ANZKX), a non-gubmint group (the best kind!) that since late last year has given new kidneys to 42 people, saving their lives. Now these weren’t from cadavers, or close rellies, but compatible altruistic donors. It works like this, if you can’t find a suitable donor, they’ll find one through the Australian Red Cross ANZKX OrganMatch computer programme for you. All you need to do is supply a willing kidney donor who is cross-matched to a needy recipient. Until the beer-virus hit, they had carried out concurrent surgeries on up to 7 pairs of people in a complex chain, so there is no backing out if somebody gets cold feet! If the people of these 2 small countries are successful in a truly altruistic programme, surely the people of North America can too?
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Welcome back, Kotter! I have a new track to send to you.
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Phil- My friend, I think you thrive on self persecution. Get a descent ride.
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I had literally been watching for a decent older Plain Jane Ford Ranger with a 4 cyl and a 5 speed when I got laid off.
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Hey Phil You’re in luck! I have a 2001 4×4 XLT 4L V6, 5 speed manual tranny (can I say that?) with a third clutch that has been funky for two years now. It’s black, and has lots O gunny stickers on it. . . and a couple of Trump ones too.
All yours for only . . . Nah, I wouldn’t sell that to you. I’d have to listen to you bitch about it on your blog site endlessly. Cheers!
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Damn we’ve never even met and he reads me like a book!
Thanks Sarthurk!
I’m looking for a 4cyl 5 speed in a little pickup anyway.. As dog shit simple as I can get.
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This one has no FOB, no electric windows, the air conditioner doesn’t work, No sun roof. No rear slider window, however, it is the Cab and a half model with short rear doors. But it sure can haul ass! I can spin the tires on dry pavement, no problem. In stop and go traffic when it’s raining, I have to put it in 4wd. It’s freaking dangerous when its wet. Which is like half the year at least on the coast. I have yet to find a good ballast besides sand bags. I think I’ll have to go back to that though. Its a bitch though when you want to do a dump run and have to move 6, 40 pound bags of sand to do it.
Well, like the T shirt on one of the Vet helo pilots that flew us around in the Sierras back in the day, Life’s a Bitch, and then you die.
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Those 4.0 L engines were a hell of a good engine.
Not many issues, run smooth and for their size, go pretty strong.
I wonder if you could mount some weight up under the bed somehow to keep from having to move sand bags all the time?
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Hmmm? Wait! Don’t try to make me think at this time of the evening.dammit! I’ll be thinking ’till 2am.
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PS Phil: Don’t be a pussy, out here in Burnt Scrotum a 100 degree F day is
walk in the park weather. I’m glad you worked it out. I am not an auto mechanic,
but I should have mentioned that when dealing with heat exchangers if the
water is flowing too fast, proper heat transfer does not occur. I lost track of
the number of times I solved overheating problems by throttling back the
cooling water flow.
The proper balance of the radiator cap and thermostat is designed to maintain
pressure and flow to achieve optimal heat transfer. Old Gardner Denver and
Ingersoll Rand compressors had actual radiators and pully mounted fans.
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One thing I have encountered with a weak radiator cap, especially if the radiator is partially clogged or only has a single row of tubes – the water pump will collapse the lower hose. Had a friend with a Street Stock that would overheat, and he replaced : the pump, T-stat, fan, hoses – everything. Then one night, I pulled the hood off and saw the lower hose sucked flat. Seems as though he bought the cheapest hose they had, and it didn’t have a spring in the lower hose. A new Gates green stripe on the bottom alleviated most of his issues. A actual fan shroud took care of the rest.
I can’t begin to tell you how many people would spend $6000 on an engine, but get a $30 flex fan from Walmart – then wonder why they over heated all the time.
Which brings up a question – does your lower hose still have a spring in it, from end to end? A hose that collapses doesn’t flow any water to cool the engine.
Just a thought….
Glad you had a relatively enjoyable weekend.
Leigh
Whitehall, NY
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That hose thingy. Yep. Had a Ford E-150 that did the same thing. Replaced cheap hoses on it with rather expensive ones, but it was worth it. That and making sure your unibelt is running correctly and everything is turning right.
It always seems the rubber hoses and belts all go to crap right about the same time. Funny that. Almost like it was planned or something….
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You’re quite welcome Phil. I’m glad the tip worked and that you saw it. I also like the tip above here about checking the lower hose. I’ve seen them as soft as a condom and about as strong.
With the less than five minute diagnosis my mechanic made, he wouldn’t even let me pay him. Said he’d “get me next time around”. As I said, the cheapest auto repair I’ve ever seen.
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The Stant pressure tester is worth the money, if you can get a deal on one at the pawn shop.
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I have one out in the garage somewhere with the adapter for testing caps.
For ten bucks I just replaced the cap because I didn’t when I replaced the radiator a couple of years ago and should have.
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When avionics was still in its infancy pilots did incredible things with flying machines that wouldn’t be called airplanes nowadays.
Hell Phil: you could be one of these guys!
I’m glad you made it back.
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Family legend has it that my grandfather was out in the woods in his Model T, the engine threw a rod. He took the head off, pulled the broken piston out, hammered a block of wood into the cylinder, put it back together and drove home on three cylinders. Not sure if I believe it, but he was that kind of old coot.
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I once had a Lada 1500 CS – it looked pretty much like this one:
It was robust, smelled of gasoline and was a terrible guzzler but very reliable – until it decided to break down on a Bavarian highway on a rainy night. The engine ran perfectly well and a second later it simply stopped working. I tried the forward momentum to get it running again but it only stank of gasoline more than ever before. That highway didn’t have a service lane so I parked half on the road and half in the grass – with flashing hazard lights.
I stumbled out, opened the hood and found nothing suspicious. Then the smell of gasoline hit home: gotta be the carburetor’s fault!
My only tools on board:
and
With these I removed the whole carburetor and put it on a newspaper on the co-driver’s seat.
I got it disassembled and found out that the welding of the brass float ball came off.
I found a piece of electric cable, removed its isolation, twirled a couple of strands together and mounted the float ball back on its holder by wrapping the twisted strands around a couple of times.
After this „repair“ the engine came to life instantly.
I never ever got it repaired in honest since it ran flawlessly for the remainder of the car‘s life.
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Gee, you’d be a handy person to have around, Doctor U. Hey, I hope they aren’t your tools of trade?
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Nope. These are my tools of trade:
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Man! THAT is one medium Big-assed rotor!!
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That dynamic balancing machine is rather old. Mine is a bit more modern.
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I was trained on a Schenk computerized dynamic balancer. Naturally,
I knew more about frequency, amplitude, resonant frequencies, and
the like than the guy who got the job. The same fucking thing
happened at a paper mill. A brain dead apprentice screwed me out
of attending an SKF vibration spectrum analysis school because he
had more “seniority” than I did. He failed!
At another paper mill, I spent 3,300 dollars on a Pocket PC based
vibration analyzer and “inherited” a 7,500 dollar precision LASER
shaft alignment from the first mill. Oh, what a wonderful world we
live in when mechanical barbarians who use straight edges to
align shafts and fucking screwdrivers to analyze bearing conditions
get veto powers by the dickheads in the front office who want to
save ten minutes of downtime rather than do the job properly!
Unfuck, the item in the photo is most likely a paper machine roll.
Based on the coupling, it is probably an autoflyite roll destined to
go to a rewinder where slitters cut it to length to fit customer
orders.
PS about my skills, it is not about what you know, it is about
who you BLOW!
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Yay! I found me a brother in mind! I actually AM working with a Schenck dynamic balancing machine. Balancing paper rolls 🙂
That picture isn’t from my work so I’m not a hundred percent sure what roll it is but it seems to be what we call a Tambour. These things are stacked in the paper machine and they pick up the paper at breathtaking speeds. On one side they have a ring with the teeth for the transmission/coupling. I am lacking the English vocabulary to describe the parts and mechanics correctly.
My machine has both a belt and cardan shaft drive. So from 20 tons upward we use cardan.
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Now you have to go where you. Can catch a golden trout
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Something to think about…..Clutch fan. If it was your Caballero it would have a viscous thermal clutch fan and if it is ‘old’ like all of us are, it could be failing to engage the fan fully when it is needed. I am not saying your thermostat or radiator cap are not in need of replacement. I am just suggesting that if you see a spike in temps while in slow traffic or in a traffic jam that your thermal clutch fan may not be doing its job. This would put a lot of stress on the rest of the cooling system that could cause a weak but still viable component to fail.
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Even though it was only four years old I replaced that first before I took off out of town.
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Had that problem on a little Subaru years ago, dealer said that they were not repairable, that I’d have to fork out for a new one. Pulled the dodgy piece off, cleaned it and repacked it with Toyota viscous gel. Worked great, until I hit a steer one night!
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We used to take one bolt out of a GM fan clutch, then drill and tap for one twice as long. It would lock the clutch up and turn at pulley speed all the time. Only used it on “Enduro” cars at the track – had to be completely stock, with welded doors, gutted interior, and no glass. They would allow a roll over bar as a safety precaution.
I imagine that it could be done in an emergency, if no other option was readily available, to get home.
Leigh
Whitehall, NY
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I had a similar problem on a old Toyota with 150K on it. Turns out the radiator was shot though only 4 years since replacement. Took it to a radiator shop and he looked and poked his finger though. The tubes were good but the webbing was flying in the breeze and limiting radiator capability. Threw him a ten for the look and replaced the radiator and the problem went away.
Until he poked it I’d have sworn the radiator was fine.
Eck!
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The older Chevy vans had an fixed engine fan that would bolt up to any mid 70’s Chevy that usually had a clutch fan.
A real junkyard Prize item.
Fixed fan in the summer,some cardboard across the radiator in winter.
Overheating problems fixed.
Well.. that and a thermostat 10 Degrees cooler.
One summer I removed the thermostat completely until freezing temps came again.
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The lower radiator hoses without the spring are handy when you want to place an inline heater in the lower radiator hose.
Usually 400 watts,this works great in the Michigan subzero winters.
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