Very Hot Engine Bay

[GringoRick]

The engine bay in my E350 (ambulance) gets very hot when driving around. I am not sure if this is normal or not. I am considering adding some vent louvers on the hood to help with air flow thru the bay. Touching the outside of the front fenders is very hot to the touch. Example.. I have 5 batteries - 4 are located outside of the engine bay, and one is located inside. The battery in the engine bay gets so hot that it leaks, while the other 4 are dry as a bone.

So I guess my question is, is a very hot engine bay normal and I shouldnt worry about it, or a design flaw with this van? And, would adding louvers on the hood help out, or maybe hurt whatever airflow cooling design this vehicle already has?

 

[Kistthesky]

got to assume it's really hot & humid down there since you're near the equator, is the coolant temp ok?

 

[OLDBULL8]

First of all, check for any restriction (dirt) thru the radiator, AC condensor and transmission aux cooler. The air flow helps to cool the transmission, don't divert it by adding louvers on the hood, rain can get into the engine bay also by doing that, possibly sucking water into the intake. The battery in the engine bay should never get hot enough to "leak", quite possibly that battery is getting overcharged.

Even a truck engine bay will get to 260F to 350F. Your fan clutch should kick in at around 240F. check it for proper operation.

Do you have dual Alternators?

 

[GringoRick]

kissthesky - my engine temp stays at the lower 1/3rd of the guage (no numerical guage) unless I am climbing, then it will raise to just above mid-gauge, and the then the fan clutch kicks in and makes alot of noise, and it seems I lose a bit of power. But it does successfully lower the temp and disengauge. Its only hot and humid when we are at low elevation. Over the last month we have been mostly between 7000 and 14000 feet. Too bad I dont have a turbo!!!

oldbull - yeah I definitely do not want to screw up the airflow thru the radiator/condensor/tranny cooler. But it seems that there is really nowhere for air to exit the bay but out under the van. I figured if I put louvers on the hood, it would create a vacuum and pull more air out of the bay, therefor forcing more air thru the grill.

As far as the batteries go, I have 3 house batteries hooked in parallel. They all get charged the same. One is under the hood, the other two are not. Only the one under the hood in subject to the heat of the engine bay, and only that one is leaking. It gets really hot. I dont have a guage in there to measure the temp, but I have never had a car that if I touch the front quarterpanel, it almost burns my hand.

I will take a close look at the radiator/condensor/tranny cooler and see how dirty it is.

 

[79jasper]

May need to hose out the radiator. Gonna need fairly high pressure. A car wash will work.
Spray straight in to the radiator area through the grill.

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[GringoRick]

Thats the plan. They have some crazy truck wash places down here in Ecuador that wash the crap out of everything with super high pressure. Soaks my interior floor mats every time.... but I still cant figure out where the water is coming from! Ill get one of those guys to givenit a good squirt.

 

[79jasper]

I will say it may not get everything, but will get some.
Pretty much every time I was my truck, I spray out the radiator and condenser. Well a month or so back when I changed my water pump, I also pulled the radiator to give it a good cleaning. The front incoming side of it had all kinds of nasty stuff in there. I was shocked. Wish I would've taken some pictures. People wouldn't believe how bad it was unless they seen it.
But I never had any over heating, not even while moving a 14x70 mobile home last year.


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[OLDBULL8]

Just watch out when spraying the rad with super hi pressure, might bend the fins. Might even check the fins on the rad, if a bunch is bent, specially the top part, that would decrease a lot of air flow in the hottest part.

 

[chris142]

Don't forget that you have 1000lbs of iron @ 200+ degrees and exhaust manifolds in the 1000 degree area.