Engine temperatures

[revsdiesel]

On a trip home (central Fl.) from Atlanta, after about 6-7 hours of constant driving, the engine temp crept up from around 180 to maybe 190'ish, and then stayed there for the rest of the trip home. I realize these are not "hot" temps nor are they dangerous. My curiosity was in why it climbed after so many hours of a constant tempt?

When pulling our camper (28 ft), the temp will rise to about 200 and then at times just go past the 210 mark and then drop back down to around the 200 mark. Again, I assume these are not dangerous tempts, but it does make me wonder what is too hot and how hot can it run for how long and still be ok?

thanks much for any input... kip

 

[moparkxracer]

Mine climb as well, I have a gauge in each side of the engine to check temps on each side... Have you cleaned the intercooler and radaitor at all? They do collect and trap dirt. I did notice running a 1500 front grill and bumper my temps increased a couple degrees. I also monitor oil temps, you'd be surprised how inefficient the stock setup is at cooling oil.

 

[roxyfever]

Normal temp is 185-210 you can run at these temps forever. When it gets to 220+ sustained then worry

 

[hondarider552]

Um...

The tstat is 180 and 185*.

 

[x MadMAX DIESEL]

That's not bad


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[Awenta]

Don't pay too much attention to the dash gauge. It's way off. When it shows 210 it's actually around the 180s where the thermostats open.

Look at the temps with a scanner next time.

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[THEFERMANATOR]

Normal temp is 185-210 you can run at these temps forever. When it gets to 220+ sustained then worry

Normal temps are anything under 240 or so. The fan clutch isn't even supposed to go full in until the engine temps are around 230-235 for 01-10 trucks with a mechanical mechanism.

Um...

The tstat is 180 and 185*.

They start to open at 180 for the rear, and 185 for the front, but according to the general and the tech specs, the bypass isn't even blocked until 212 degrees, and the stats aren't full open until 230 degrees. There was a thread here a few months back where this was discussed, and I posted screen shots of the data specs.

Don't pay too much attention to the dash gauge. It's way off. When it shows 210 it's actually around the 180s where the thermostats open.

Look at the temps with a scanner next time.

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I know I checked an 01 before, and it went up to the 190-195 range and stayed there with engine temps running 172 or so all the way up to 220-225. To say they are inaccurate is an understatement. Once you get above 225 it starts to read fairly close.

 

[c20elephant]

Chevy did a piss poor job of airflow through the grill/bumper area for the 2006 trucks. Used a few assorted tools to the bumper on mine. Going to fabricate another bottom piece between the frame rails.

My dash gauge is extremely accurate between the 170 and 210 mark compared with my V2, the temperature will drop from 200 exiting the freeway and by the time I stop it will be at 180 degrees in less than one minute...

The Chevrolet LBZ trucks block a good majority of airflow to the radiator and blocks the transmission cooler completely.

I enlarged the holes at the bumper, removed some tabs on the bumper and frame horn massaged the plastic liner in the picture below and a new transmission cooler.

At idle the AC works better and hovers per my V2 180-185 degrees sitting still and the dash gauge doesn't peg the 210 mark on the freeway and drops 20 degrees after exiting the freeway, the transmission stays at 150 degrees so far, I'll know more in August if it was worth-the-while...

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As soon as I come up with a way to trim the plastic cover I'm gonna cut some a holes in the 2" body/bumper raise that blocks direct flow to the transmission cooler (Found that idea on DieselPlace)..., or rotate it 180 degrees...
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I removed part of the tab at the bumper and frame horn and heated and massaged the plastic panel down. I'm going to replace the stock bottom panel with some Coroplast and make some vertical panels also. If I sell some more equipment to pay for my medical bills I'll embezzle a little bit of it for some fender vents to allow more air to escape from the dog house......

See the horizontal bar just below the cooler, it has holes in it but still blocks about the lower 2" of the radiator and no air flow makes it to the extreme right or left sides. After removing the tabs at the bumper and frame horn I can place a flat panel all the way across.....
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Removed part of this bumper support
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And part of this tab on the bumper after I enlarged the hole.
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Found a good example of how much the bumper blocks the stack or the transmission cooler.
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[THEFERMANATOR]

If you think GM did a piss poor job on the GMT-800's for grille airflow, come look at mine. Even at 70 I get very little ram air through the cooling stack, and below 45 or so it is basically working like it's standing still.

 

[Josh154]

My dash gauge sucks. It sits slightly over 210 and my actually coolant temp is 185 on the cts

 

[Rancelot211]

My dash gauge sucks. It sits slightly over 210 and my actually coolant temp is 185 on the cts

Same here on my lmm. Drove me nuts at first coming from a lly!

 

[malibu795]

Dash gauges are not accurate, temps nor pressures.. in my experience..

230° is still safe... 250° engine starts derating.
My ect will swing almost 30° without moving the needle..

V2 states my LMM run 87-89C(188-193°F) had it up to 212° before dash gauge moved

Had issues with the dash oil pressure guage... wouldn't match V2 so I put a mechanical guage in on #2 main.. it reads 10-30psi higher down stream then the OEM senseor which is new on install. Should be the other way around

 

[malibu795]

How "buggy" was the drive?
Bug guts do pretty good job and plugging up the cooling stack
Caught most of these in last 600 miles or so.

 

[revsdiesel]

OK, so my assumption is that the tempts my gauge is showing are fine. And when / if the gauge shows a significant increase. Someone mentioned the gauge reading 210 may actually be around 180; so when the gauge reads around 180 - 190 is the actual tempt still about 30 degrees lower? What is the normal tempt? I have hand held tempt device to read service tempts. Any idea what the thermostat housing would show for an average tempt, if I checked it manually under the hood? Just curious... Again, thanks for the help. It is greatly appreciated. kip

 

[DAVe3283]

I've never measured the thermostat housing, but I would imagine it would be within 5-10 degrees of the coolant? The only way to get the real coolant temperature, though, is through the OBD port. You can use the Bluetooth OBD2 adapters and Torque for Android, or EFILive, or many professional scanners to read the temperature.

 

[malibu795]

I've seen 10-15° cooler temps measuring that way with a temp gun.. knowing surface temps will be cooler then medium flowing through it. Naturally airflow and ambient temperature pay part

 

[THEFERMANATOR]

Think of the temp gauge as being a multi step display instead of an actual gauge. I know the 01 I checked would read at 160(1st mark) for anything up to 100 degrees, at 100-105 it moved up to almost the next large hash mark which is 180. It stayed in this area just shy of the 180 mark until the engine reached 165-170 degrees at which point it started up to around 195 at which point it stayed there until it reached 220/225 temp area, then it started reading semi close beyond that point up to 240 at which time we stopped the experiment. On another note though, when the engine cools down, it tends to stay reading high for awhile after cooling down.

For all of them I have checked, 185 is a normal temp to see when running empty at speeds up to 60-65 MPH on a warm to hot day. Running 70-75 with the amount of timing I run, I see 190-195 on a 85-90 degree day, and I've seen similiar temps from other trucks I've datalogged empty. Towing mine runs a bit on the warmer side because of my older BURBS SMALL grill opening to the cooling stack, and poor entrance design that provides little to no ram air for cooling. This last weekend towing 12-13K pounds at 55-60 MPH, I was seeing temps around 195-205 out of it, but it was 92-95 degrees outside.

 

[c20elephant]

If you think GM did a piss poor job on the GMT-800's for grille airflow, come look at mine. Even at 70 I get very little ram air through the cooling stack, and below 45 or so it is basically working like it's standing still.

There is barely enough room for radiator to cool a small block with moderate engine modifications and timing let alone a big block and you have a Duramax in your Burb. Thickness does not always work with radiators condensers and the like. GM finally changed the grill enough to install a radiator with enough surface area to handle the Duramax, With your Suburban you stuffed 15lbs of engine in a 5lbs doghouse an the 2001-2006 trucks are a close second with 10lbs in a 5lbs doghouse.

I recall shortly after I bought this truck a guy who owned one 2001-2006 PM'd me and congratulated me on the truck and proceeded to tell me what it was like to drive one in August, stop and go traffic at 120 degrees OAT, they're SLUGS.........

I made some clips and cutout a cardboard template for the bottom panel and should finish it today..

 

[malibu795]

I had no problems... then I again I was able to put a dmax cooling stack into a CK truck.

Hayden flan clutch was on there as well

 

[THEFERMANATOR]

I had no problems... then I again I was able to put a dmax cooling stack into a CK truck.

Hayden flan clutch was on there as well

You had a gmt-455, HUUGE difference in the grill cooling area. That extra 2 inches in height with the grill full of openings vs the small opening on my GMC makes a big difference.