need cooling upgrades, any advice?

[93f250idi]

towed a little today about the same load as normal. 9200 lbs total, and i had a cooling problem. seems on flat ground it was fine, only went up a few times on the flat ground, but on any hill at all the temp would start climbing. on the hills it would hit the m on the temp gauge which is alot hotter than usual. normal temps towing stay around the n or the o on the factory temp gauge. what are some good upgrades for the cooling system? alluminum rad, electric fans, and what else? gonna try to get a manual temp gauge on it this week, and i will definitly have one on it before i tow anything again. any advice on what this could be, and some good upgrades would be great! thanks!

 

[Brianedwardss]

Fan clutch may be weak, the fins in your radiator may be plugged with a bit of debris, which will also cause your fan clutch to not operate propely, cause it wont be transferring heat to the air flowing onto the fan clutch.

A cheap option is to have a spare fan that is locked on. My 88 with a stock fan clutch will overheat at the drop of a hat when pulling. I've replaced the radiator, water pump, hoses, and flushed the system twice in the last year, same result. The thermostat is operating perfectly, 7.3L's just have that stinkin' plug in the head that limits cooling, so they overheat way too easily.

Easy way to lock the clutch is to drill a hole in the meaty part of the clutch, spin the nut til one of the internal pucks covers the newly drilled hole, then drill a hole in that. Then just fill the hole with a big puddle of weld, wahlah. Tighten it on to the truck very tightly with some dabs of blue locktite, and you have the most cooling possible. Since I use my 88 for commuting in a big city, I run a locked fan year-round. No more overheating while stuck in traffic. If you have overdrive, having a locked fan won't kill your MPG's either cause your rpm's are lower. You could leave it on for the summer too

 

[93f250idi]

Fan clutch is brand new. I think it's time for e-fans. Normally when I tow it's gonna be 3 or more horses or heavy vehicles so I gotta get this fixed asap. Any ideas on what e fans I can use?

 

[Agnem]

I still think one of the best mods for the 7.3 people (aside from opening back up the plugged at the factory cooling passages) is a pair of temperature gauges with senders in the upper and lower radiator hoses. The 7.3 is so dependent on extreme cooling, that you need to be able to monitor the performance of your radiator to see if there is a problem with it. This will not be something you can do after the fact. You need to have stable performance data and understand "what normal readings look like". That way, when you do have a problem, you know right away if it is your radiator/fan clutch or not. An ambient air temp sensor right before and after the rad would be a plus. Not only would you see the input and output water temps getting closer to each other, but you would see the before and after air temps getting closer. This would tell you right away that your fins were plugged, or maybe if your fan wasn't working. I own one 7.3 in heavy towing service and to date have not had any cooling issues, but this is something I've been thinking about doing for a while, and if or when I start to have a problem, I don't want to just strart throwing parts at it to fix it. I want to know what went wrong.

 

[Michael Fowler]

I'd be suspicious of the radiator, itself--having had a similar experience.( 2009? Rally) Use an infra red non contact temperature gauge to read the temps on the face of the radiator. I bet the lower half of your radiator is cooler than the upper half.
These trucks did not overheat from the factory, so before you start looking at "new" solutions, make sure that the factory systems are working as designed.

 

[93f250idi]

well i bet its in the rad or fan, there could be some bent fins as ive been driving threw a field this past week hauling off scrap metal. if there not bent then there shouldnt be any restrictions because the grill lets plenty of air threw and i dont have a front bumper so almost half of the radiator is exposed.

 

[flareside_thun]

Turn the fuel down. This: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc05KfgUF8s will cause higher operating temps.

 

[icanfixall]

My question is how many fins per inch was the radaitor you removed compared to what you have now. Rows mean something too. I found an aluminum radiator on ebay made in Temucula Ca for around $240.00.... Its no way made like my rodney red but for that price I think its a fair deal. Are you running distilled water in both of these radiators. If not your going to ruin a new radiator. The minerals deposit out on the top edge of the tubes and stops the flow thru the radiator. I found this out the hard way many years ago... Mels idea is founded on common sence too.

 

[93f250idi]

Don't understand I've never swapped rads?

 

[icanfixall]

Then how do you know your radiator isn't plugging up with said minerals. This is the radiator I posted about...
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1983...r_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item1c1d433c47
Its nothing like the rodney reds but its an aluminum radiator that will cool better than a stock radiator will.

 

[OLDBULL8]

Don't understand I've never swapped rads?

Why not take the rad from the 96 and swap it into your 93 after you have the 96 boiled out at a rad shop. Never rod them out as they have wiggles in the tubes. Drain the 93, block and all, flush, redrain, then fill coolant system with 3 gallons of distilled water (bought at grocery store) and 3 gallons of concentrated Fleetguard/W SCA, good for 100,000 miles. Buy 4 gallons of each to top off with a 50/50 mix.

Have the 93 boiled out then. I think the rads will swap.

 

[FordGuy100]

Agreed with the gauges. Get those in first and see what happens. Next look at the radiator to see how much crud is in it.

The mechanical fan will cool way better than electric fans For sure.

 

[Goose_ss4]

what plug in the heads are you guys taking about? pics? how easy I is it to fix this problem.

 

[BioFarmer93]

what plug in the heads are you guys taking about? pics? how easy I is it to fix this problem.

Yeah, seriously- I have a set of turbo heads waiting to go to the machine shop for boil/bake/valve job & porting, it would be nice to nip this potential overheat problem in the bud...

 

[typ4]

Just cause the fan clutch is new means nothing, I put on my old one and took the new one back, didnt kick on even at 240.

left upper and lower in the pic, core plugs need drilled or removed, dont know which,this is a 7.3 head.