Cooling issues

[pafixitman]

OK, made my first major trip after last years issues. I have 3 temp concerns - AC, rad and tranny.

Two days prior to departure Doug Benson replaced the accumulator and oriface tube on my AC and added 2 lbs, 12 oz of good ol' freon. Got the air to about 55* sitting in his driveway.

Driving to Myrtle Beach my temps went up almost 10* with the AC on and the AC was not very cold. Air temps were high 90's w/ heat index over 100* the entire vacation.

I weight in at about 14,500 fully "dressed". My truck has always preferred running at 60 mph based on temps. I run dual plate coolers mounted in front of the rad. Yesterday driving back from the Charlotte area I averaged 210 on the tranny (gauge mounted on drivers side test port) and 210 on water (mounted in driver side head, rear). The temps would go up almost 10* more if the AC was truned on. 65 - 70 mph and the temps went up almost 10* also.


I am wondering if the tranny coolers are getting heat soaked by the rad? Should I drop back to one cooler? Relocate them? What about the water temps? What can i do to keep the inside cool also? (Doug mentioned that I need to remember the AC is the same for a regular cab, ext cab or a CC).

The tranny temps and AC concern me the most. I have the larger Ford pan and a turbo style bumper. I'm thinking of pinning the clutch, but I could tell it was operating ok. When I stopped for the kiddies or fuel, I would let it idle and temps went down to 195* water, and 180* tranny in about 15 minutes.

 

[icanfixall]

Great to see your out there running with them again. The ac requires 3 lbs of R12. The low side when running needs to show 50 lbs of pressure. Now the coolant temp location you are using is ok but... It will show about 7 to 10 degrees hotter than it really is. The best place for temp sender is the extra plug in the water pump. This is a channel thru the water pump that combines both heads just before the coolant sees the thermostat. Pete (cndsarguy) has a very good diagram on his site showing this in detail. The trans coolers has me wondering how you have them mounted. If they are seeing the air before any other item like the ac or rad core then I feel they are mounted correct and no heat soak is causing them to be hotter that normal. Remember when the motor is running its pulling air thru the coolers. Hope this helps....

 

[pafixitman]

Thanks ican. Did not know that about the water temp port...makes sense. The coolers are mounted in front of the rad and ac, one on each side of the hood latch bracket. I mentioned to Steph that it would be interesting to get a switch and two more senders, trans out to cooler temp and the temp exiting the coolers. It never puked fluid nor did it slip. I will do a fluid change though. Got a local trip planned for Labor day weekend and a 3 hr drive to Raystown planned in 3 weeks for Steph's b-day.

 

[Darrin Tosh]

Hey Joe, sounds like normal turboed IDI towing to me. I had to run my speed off the temp guage as well. What may help you is holes in the bumper, and a MS tech fan clutch.

But I really think the only way to REALLY take care of IDI cooling issues is head to Freaght Train's house and take that modded radiator out of the Enterprise. Heck it ain't being used any way he wont notice it gone for 2 years or so.

Or get one built.

 

[tonkadoctor]

One thing that would help the AC is to do the heater core bypass mod if you havn't done so already.

 

[pafixitman]

Yeah, I told Steph ol' goat boy had a real good rad in the Enterprise. Mike, I have the mod - a Ranger valve, but never got small enough vaccum hose and finished the install!

 

[Agnem]

... It will show about 7 to 10 degrees hotter than it really is. ....

OK, this has me baffled. I respect your ability tremendously, so explain to me how the temperature probe is imagining the water temp to be hotter? It only measures what it sees, and to me, I'd rather my probe imagine more, then less.

Joe, move the tranny coolers down behind the drive train, and put fans on them. That takes all that heat out of the equation. Somebody asked for pics of mine, and I'll try to show them tonight.

 

[Guntherx]

Joe,
The water temps seem normal to me. As ytou know I pull and pull hard. When the temps are that high and you are pulling that big of a wind catcher i would expect emps to go to 215-220 aT TIMES. i have a temp gauge in the water poump and it reads about the same as the factory.

on the A/C, when temps are that high you will see a reduction in cooling capacity. remember A/C is designed to lower the temp a certain range; therefore if it is designed to reduce temps by 25* then when the temps are higher the redusced temperature is higher. make sense? Also ytou may want to switch to 23A. I did and it has improved the perfoemance. if yotu want me to ehlp you with it let me know.
another thought on the trans temps. by adding another cooler you added another restriction in front of the a/c cond and rad. that may be part of it.

glad to hear you made it ok. we missed you on friday. we are trying to plan som ecamping for the fall as well. let me know if you are interested.

 

[Diesel JD]

Gunther what is 23A? I too would like to know about the heat in the cylinder head location....maybe that port in the water pump has a use eh?

 

[gandalf]

Your temps seem a bit high, as compared to mine from the recent trip to the Sierras. Reference my posting last week, Trip Report/Ramble

My truck is pretty must the same, with the exception of a lack of turbo. I have an N/A 7.3, E4OD, 4.10 gears, and a dually, carrying a large heavy cabover camper which pushes lots of air. Mine has ~175,000 miles.

I have just a single transmission cooler, mounted in much the same place, first in line behind the grillwork. The transmission probe is in the side near the linkage, and the water/coolant probe is plumbed into the water pump.

As I stated, my temps were lower than yours by a moderate amount. Could the turbo alone account for that difference? I just don't know.

I drove across the central valley, almost always hot in the summer, and up to 7300 feet. I was not pushing the truck, but wasn't dawdling either.

 

[Guntherx]

Gunther what is 23A? I too would like to know about the heat in the cylinder head location....maybe that port in the water pump has a use eh?

its called bad typing. I meant 134-A, eh! since when does someone from FL say eh; EH!

 

[Diesel JD]

I thought that might be the case, but there are so many coolant/refrigerants out there now I thought maybe you knew something I didn't. A few years ago there was a guy on TDS who recharged his system with 401A..... I have converted to 134A and it hasn't cooled quite as well as it did with the R12 when it was working properly, yet much better than that system when it was getting tired.