next upgrades to come.
i have been swapping back and forth on how i want to do the cooling system and what would be the best bang for the buck. I built a little mister system to see if that would help cooling. it does help but not to the extent i was hoping.
now mind you, this is the heaviest i have towed with this much power in these temps. at 113* pulling 6% grade, i can get to 240 coolant temp QUICK but prior to that temp, oil temp is already at 240*. i can watch the oil temp vs coolant temp like clock work. soon as oil temp hits 245*, coolant start going up. My trans temp is also taking a beating at 210-230* depending on grade. the mister knocks the heat down but i can still hit 240* coolant with ease. i have to slow to 40-45mph on hills just to keep 235-240* coolant temp.
i have tried shrouding the oil cooler in and making a scoop on the front to get more air but driving down the highway and the angle its at just isnt getting enough air through it. There is no room to add fans and the little ones i could get to fit are only rated at 375cfm which isnt much. by the end of a long pull, im seeing 270* oil temps. this is better than no cooler but im not happy. I will be pulling the cooler off and selling it. it will work better for someone placed in its intended design area. it worked on brians old twin turbo GMC much better than it has for me. I talked with adam on his oil cooler setup and he was telling me about a new setup he wanted to swap to. it sounded like a great way to go so i have ordered up the parts. Ill be using a derale 40 stack plate, -12AN cooler rated at 60,000btu with a 800cfm fan. i am not using their fan, instead i ordered a 12" spal fan rated at 1640 cfm and will be using it as a puller mounted in the front bumper like my other oil cooler is now. i have high hopes for this setup to keep things cool.
Next im going to try a fully locked up mechanical fan. i could hear both the stock fan clutch and hayden 2886 clutch hit a higher speed when i decel down a hill and hit high rpms (3000+) but it will not pull the higher speed well pulling hills. i would like to see if a 100% locked up one will give me more cooling and if both clutches just were not locking up enough. im a little worried about breaking a blade off the fan so im not going to run the engine over 3k during the test/trip.
then in a month or sooner, ill be calling Mike L for a bigger trans cooler and looking into doing the aux rad setup from coolertowing.com. this is assuming that the oil cooler, fan and trans cooler dont net me more speed up the hills. all im after in this heat is 55mph up hill. thats a 10-15mph increase which is a stretch to hit but i feel its achievable.
its funny, when it was 60* outside pulling these hill back in October for a hunting trip loaded down the same i was at 113*, i could pull 4th gear at 62mph not trying and never see over 200* coolant or over 240* oil by the top of a hill. hell the last hill to flag i was in 5th gear the whole way up when it was 43* out running 70mph. double the temp and cooling efficiency goes to shit quick lol
