Okay, I still haven't made any purchases for my cooling upgrade. Mostly because I've been figuring out what I've got and what I need. My truck's a '96, but it has the '97 dual thermostat crossover manifold (factory I guess, 96.5?).

The engine temp has been at about 210-220 in this 90 degree weather (no load, no trailer). Is this too hot?? (me thinks yes).

I took a good look at the front of the radiator and there is an awful lot of crap in front of it, extra tranny cooler, oil cooler, and ac element. There's very little clear radiator space and I think this is a big contributor to the high operating temps.
All coolers are snug against the radiator. Should there be a space between coolers and the radiator? (truck was in a front end collision before I bought it, not sure if everything was reassembled properly)

You might want to pull them apart and wash, clean out any trash in between them. Yes 210-220 is too hot BUT you might want to get a second opinion, sit down everyone, from another gauge that you install like an aftermarket on. I hear the factory gauges ain't always correct. and I'd install two robertshaw stats from Kennedy Diesel
But thats just me.

I've been considering the 180 degree stats, everything LOOKS clean. I'm thinking about the 9 blade dmax fan, or possibly kennedy's lower temp clutch setup. My concern is that these upgrades are great for towing applications. However, I'm not towing when I'm seeing these temps. Stock setup shouldn't get this hot under light driving. :cool:

That does sound hot. My dad's '96 has a single tstat and runs at 200*F on the dash when it's at running tempature.

Does your system hold pressureeverywhere even at the cap? A leaky system will always run hot.

I second the part about cleaning the cores. I was pulling my travel trailer last week, water temp got to 233°F by the top of a big hill. I was using a hand held therocouple reader and it was right on track with the dash gauge. Any way I took the radiator core, tranny cooler, and oil cooler out of my rig. I cleaned all the cores, took almost two hours just to wash the bugs out of all of the cores, including the A/C core. It is very common for crap to get into these cores. This weekend I could not get the water above 200°F on the same hill, and I was trying to get it hot. I would go through the cores really well before you spend any money. Removing them from the truck is a PITA but well worth the time.

As far as I know, the system holds pressure. I haven't smelled any antifreeze, and the coolant level stays the same. The cores look pretty clean, maybe one or two gnats visible through the grill.

One thing that I did notice is that the temp held around 210 going up hill with rpm at 2000. Coasting down hill, the rpms fell and temps got near 215. This leads me to suspect either fan clutch or water pump. I've ordered the 130 gpm pump and a 9 dmax fan and new fan clutch. Hopefully this will fix the problem.

I have 2 96 6.5's one with single thermostate and one with dual and both of them use to run around 210+ up this same hill to my house that is about 3 miles long at about a 6% grade. Changed both Stats over to 180 deg and saw major improvement. I also did the exhaust change over to a Kennedy 3.5" later and it significanly improved the temps even more. The final thing I did is change the fan and Clutch to Kennedy's modified fan clutch and my Temps bearly ever get near the 200 mark. The temps where I live get up to 100 degrees on this hill during the summer months and this was witht hte trucks empty. Towing was an issue before I did all this but it is not anything now no matter what time of day. Hope this helps since it worked for me.

For normal driving your temps are high. Find the problem, pump, stats or radiator before going for the new fan clutch kit or any other mods.

Maybe the front end damage not being repaired correctly is to blame. Is the fan shroud complete? Does your fan kick on at those temps? If your changing the pump install a new temp sensor and new stats, 195's.

And I'd suggest getting the Robertshaws like Kennedy sells. I have 2 180's waiting to go in when I start my cooling upgrade mods.

The robertshaw thermostats is the reason I went with JK's cooling kit rather than any of the others out there. I am really interested in Heath's balanced cooling kit but a lot of what I have read ranges between "it really doesnt do anything" to "you are gonna break something doin this".

I already have a timing set ready to go when the cooling kit shows up. I am hoping it does soon and I fully intend to document the install with pictures.

I am lucky my digital camera has a scuba kit on it so I can use it with dirty hands and just wash it clean :ro)

anybody here ever use that evans coolant? i think that's what it's called?

Evans coolant? is that similar to Water Wetter?


I looked into Heath's Balance flow system. If it works, I suppose it's worth the money. However, I don't see more than $40 worth of hose and fittings that comes with the kit. He does include the dual thermostat crossover manifold. However, his core charge is insane. $150 core charge for the manifold when you can buy a new one from teamchev.com for $78....:wtf:

no, the evans stuff replaces the coolant completely and is not mixed with water. the big thing about it was that it was supposed to eliminate steam pockets when the temps got high thereby eliminating hot spots. don't know if it works for real though. supposed to be lifetime coolant as well :confused:

I am really interested in Heath's balanced cooling kit but a lot of what I have read ranges between "it really doesnt do anything" to "you are gonna break something doin this".



Anyone out try out heath's kit yet. I'm interested in how well it works, I've been thinking about something like this myself and don't see how it could not help out.

Better yet, if a guy was to tap his own block off plates at the rear of the engine, where would be the best place to plumb it to get the WP to draw the coolant from the back of the heads?

Maybe into the heater core return line I was thinking???????

Would that bypass the heater core and cause trouble keeping the cab warm?


I figured out what my cooling problem was. The wrong Censored fan was on the truck. It was pushing air against the radiator. The worst part about it is that I didn't figure it out until I had the water pump off. Which, by the way, is a 130 gpm pump.........:smashfrea any body want to buy a HO pump?

So what fan did it have on it?
And you got a PM.

don't tell us, it was one made for the old days when water pumps circulated the other way?? :(

The fan was from the old days when trucks had v-belts. The fan was designed to rotate in the same direction as the crank. Serpentine driven water pumps spin opposite the crank, since the pulley contacts the back of the belt..:Wedgie:

Cancel the water pump offer. I'm returning it to the seller. :o:

had the same thing happen to a buddy with a mustang when they first started doing serpentine belts years ago. took us a little while to figure that one out :mad:

So how can I tell the difference between the HO water pump and standard water pump without actually pulling the T-Stats and counting them? I have a 96 but looks like there may be room for 2 T-stats in the housing. Guess what I am looking for is a picture of a 95 or earlier to compare it with.

My dad's '96 has a single, it's easy to tell, it has two 15mm bolts instead of 4 smaller ones.

http://www.kennedydiesel.com/coolingmods.html

Ok thanks thats the info I was looking for! I will look again tonight but am preaty sure mine has 4 bolts. Does this mean I have the HO water pump as well?