I have a fresh rebuilt 7.3 turbo f250 that I took up a long rough mountain dirt road. I have found out the fan clutch is shot because it overheated idling around at 10-15 kph. When it overheated I was just getting to a lake so I dumped some water on the rad to cool it down, and I left it running to circulate the water. The rad is a brand new aluminum so it must be the fan clutch. Could have I damaged something internally in my engine by overheating it for 30 seconds with no real load on it? Thanks.
overheated
- Thread starter BigDiesel
- Start date
FordGuy100
Registered User
Maybe yes, maybe no. How long were you driving for?
I would just check your cooling system and make sure it's up to par. Watch for white, lingering, smoke that comes out the exhaust.
I would just check your cooling system and make sure it's up to par. Watch for white, lingering, smoke that comes out the exhaust.
I had driven for 20 minutes slowly and the temperature had climbed slowly from new cold to hot and the engine light came on. I fired it up cold in the morning at the campsite and there was no coolant smell in the smoke and no bubbles in rad.
FordGuy100
Registered User
I would say your good then. Just keep an eye out for a few weeks.
IDIDieselJohn
0-60....eventually
Change your oil. When you overheat an engine you have to change the oil as it's gotten to hot and it breaks down.
icanfixall
Official GMM hand model
The problem with this overheating is how hot did it get. The "check engine lite" is supposed to lite up at 242 degrees but sometimes they don't. Not actually having a real gauge telling you what temp it reached is important. So lets say your over temp switch did come on at 242 degrees and went maybe 5 degrees higher for around 1 minute. Hurting something is a tuff call. Easing down the temps is the important thing to do at that point. And that sounds like what you di. Now if the engine ran till is died because of high heat of the coolant I would be comfortable telling you the head gaskets are shot. But from your description of what happened tells me your going to be fine. If you can remove the fan clutch there is a way to make the clutch lock up for the return trip. What you do is remove the thermostat spring thats wound around the front of the drive pin and turn that pin with the slot in it all the way to the stop. This closes the valve or port in the clutch that allows the fan to rotate pulling more or less air. I don't recall which direction you need to turn this item but you can try both ways. You will feel the lockup when you try to move the fan blades. Be careful around the new aluminum radiator too. Place some cardboard over it to protect it from the loose fan when you remove it from the waterpump.
When the engine light came on the water started pushing into the overflow but not out of it, and it stopped when I poured the water on the rad. I was also told that its not good to shut an engine off when its that hot, that it could cause hot seizure, scuffing, or cracking is that correct? I am also down off the mountain already but carried a water container, and cooled it that way when the gauge was at the r of normal. Thanks guys.
If it was just pushing some water into the overflow, but not steaming and boiling like crazy, then you may have avoided damage. Damage does not occoure from heat, it happens when the heat becomes unstable to the point to where water boils and you get air pockets, then you get uneven heating within the engine, and THAT is what leads to the damage, it is the uneven heating that will cause the irregular hot spots that will cause head cracking and gasket rupturing. If it was just pushing out, it may have just been at the beginning stages of thermal expansion right before boiling, so it's a crap shoot .
This is why I run Evans waterless coolant. With that stuff, I can go all teh way up to 375 deg on a non pressurized system without worrying about boiling, so worrying about damage from overheating is a thing of the past
icanfixall
Official GMM hand model
Never shut down a hot engine. The heat will continue to climb. Its called perqulating heat. Remember these engines have no carb. they are sucking in huge amounts of air. that cools the engine too just by running them. Slowly cooling down an engine will stress it much less than a fast cool down. Pouring water on the radiator condenses the steam if any is in the top tank. It also rapidly cools the outside of the radiator allowing for a quicker cool down from high tems. If you hear a clunking noise from the cooling sysem thats usually stem hammer water hammer. Pockets of steam collaspes and refills with water or coolant. So things will hammer. Really a scarey sound too. Glad you got home safely... Time for some research to find out what your going to do to fix the cooling issues.
The water I think was boiling since the overflow had some good action going on in it, and came close to overflowing which is 1.5 liters over normal. The head gaskets will be getting replaced again in a few months for some studs so hopefully they hold up. Would overheating like that done anything to my liners or pistons? Thanks for the help.
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