94.5 severe overheating issue, need advice

Mad Max · Oct 23, 2012

got my 94.5 7.3 p-stroke back today from the shop, drove it 8 miles and the coolant gauge was red lining doing 65 down the road, water isnt coming out the top, bottom, sides anywhere, it has pressure.

the t-stat and water pump are brand new and t-stat is installed right, could this be a fan clutch or radiator issue( took 30 minutes to drain it tonight) i'm honestly out of ideas.... anyone got one?

psdguy95 · Oct 23, 2012

Make sure your radiator fins are free of dirt and of anything that will block air flow. Is your belt on correctly? I've seen people put them on the wrong way making the waterpump not flow correctly.

Mad Max · Oct 23, 2012

radiator fins look good, but to be on the safe side tomorrow i'm swapping a different radiator in, and the belt is on correctly

kadeninabnitt · Oct 23, 2012

my thought would be an air buble trapped mine did it

Mad Max · Oct 23, 2012

so whats the best way to fix that? just run it for awhile an let it work itself out?

kadeninabnitt · Oct 24, 2012

thats what i did just ran it seemed to go away with that one having the cap on the rad may run it for a little bit with the cap off might help

SPEEDDEMON31176 · Oct 24, 2012

jack the front of the truck up as high as you can and run it. It will help force the air out.

Pstroke96 · Oct 24, 2012

not to be a d1ck.. but are you relying on the dash gauge? i would hate to see you do all that work just to find out your gauge is lying to you cause they arent exactly the best, my truck used to be in the red within about 5 minutes of running and i didnt even have heat yet. but if you already know for sure it is overheating, continue on

Mad Max · Oct 25, 2012

Pstroke96 said:
not to be a d1ck.. but are you relying on the dash gauge? i would hate to see you do all that work just to find out your gauge is lying to you cause they arent exactly the best, my truck used to be in the red within about 5 minutes of running and i didnt even have heat yet. but if you already know for sure it is overheating, continue on

i am relying on it, and i'm pretty sure its not too far off, after i drove the truck home from my buddy's place i saw it was on red, stopped, turned off the truck, opened the radiator cap and about a gallon and a half of coolant spewed everywhere, shouldnt have done that after 8 miles, as slow as i was going, but thats just my opinion, if i'm wrong i'd like to know

and youre not being a d!ck man, if you were i would have no issue callin you out on it haha

SPEEDDEMON31176 · Oct 26, 2012

You know I missed it before but you said the t-stat is brand new. That doesn't mean that it isn't faulty right out of the box.

LA_Stroker · Oct 26, 2012

Hi all, new to the Army but not to PowerStroke Forums. Intros done? Cool.

Does the current T-Stat have the small check ball in it? If not I always recommend drilling a small hole (like 3/32"-5/64") in the body of the T-Stat before install and like Speeddemon already said lifting the front of the truck pushes the air in the heads to the front of the block for easy evacuation.

Pstroke96 · Oct 26, 2012

the truck does not have to be over heating to blow coolant off when you pop the cap hot. the system is pressurized and when you release the pressure the coolant will push some out even if it is functioning properly.

i would go to the parts store and get a cheap numerical gauge and plumb it in. you can use the existing sending location right on the top of the water pump. that way you can get an idea of where you are running. anything from 190 to 210 is a good temperature to be running at