So onward we drove, past silicon valley and up into the great city of San Francisco. Up until this point in the trip we really hadn't hit any traffic to speak of. That changed when we hit 19th Ave in the city. They had a lane blocked at 19th/Sloat, so that backed things up considerably. We were a few minutes into the slow-and-go when i looked down at the temp gauge and for the first time of the trip i noticed it was at 200...
I was surprised, up until now the truck had been running really cool, 140-150 on the freeway, and 170's around town. It has a huge new Champion aluminum radiator in it, and a stock appearing fan.
I was watching the temp rise, and sort of not believing it, second guessing the gauge, when sure enough it hits 230 and blows its top.
21EA28A8-11FE-484B-ABE4-57CB516B8AC4 by
awesome_adawson, on Flickr
I hop out and push the truck to the curb. Luckily traffic is going all of 1 MPH at this time, so its not too dangerous. My wife is trying to play it cool, but i know shes not stoked. We sit for a while and let her cool off, then i pop the cap off. Its bone dry in the rad, i assume its all over the ground a few feet back.
Luckily we had a bunch of water bottles in the truck from our trip, and the house we stalled in front of had a hose in the front yard. So we filled back up, I let it cool to about 140 and she fired right back up...
The rest of the drive home in traffic was pretty hairy, i had to pull off multiple times to let her cool. As soon as we hit about 30 mph the temps drop, but any slower and it climbs FAST. And mind you this is a fairly cool day, maybe 65 outside and breezy.
Im assuming the lack of a fan shroud is causing the rapid temp spike while in traffic. The radiator is more than effective with some air running through it, but with no shroud the fan is just blowing hot air around in the engine bay. Will be looking to add a shroud or just do electric fans.