Lower temp thermostat?

[Pjay]

I live in the high desert of ca. And temps in the summer usually in excess of 100 degrees. Suggestions for preventing overheating?

[mach4]

Originally Posted by Pjay

I live in the high desert of ca. And temps in the summer usually in excess of 100 degrees. Suggestions for preventing overheating?

A lower temp thermostat will do nothing to prevent overheating. Once the thermostat is full open, the coolant temperature is determined by the cooling capacity of the radiator and the efficiency of the system to transfer heat from the engine to the coolant. Where there is excess cooling capacity, the thermostat opens and closes so as to maintain the set temperature plus a few degrees. On mine it's about 83C with an 80C thermostat.

Ideas for preventing overheating

• Make sure the radiator and coolant passages in the engine are clean.
• Make sure the radiator is clear of leaves, road junk and any other obstruction
• Make sure the engine fan and fan clutch are operating properly
• Make sure the aux electric fan and switch are working properly
• Make sure the water pump is working properly
• Check the coolant level often
• Make sure the radiator cap is maintaining proper pressure
• Make sure the engine is running properly

That should pretty much do it. If you still need additional cooling you might need to look at a larger capacity radiator, running without A/C, driving slower...or moving closer to the coast

[cooljjay]

If your cooling system is up to snuff, you should have no issues maintaining the correct temp in the desert....

[Skippy]

Correct coolant mixture is something else to check. One deployment I was on many of the vehicles were overheating without being worked particularly hard. It turned out the previous unit that had the vehicles was filling the cooling systems with straight ethylene glycol coolant instead of mixing it 50/50. Water has a lot more specific heat capacity than straight coolant, so the vehicles running straight coolant couldn't reject as much heat as when they had a proper 50/50 mix.

[t walgamuth]

I agree with all of the above posts.

[doxland]

mach4 has got it all Correct

[vstech]

Unless you drive through death valley towing loads, noplace in the US needs a lower temperature thermostat. Perform a pressure build-up test, and watch how fast the pressures build. You may have exhaust dumping into the block...

[Pjay]

i will definately make it a point to go through the cooling system components and make sure the fluids are topped off ..

thanks for the replies!