shane74
1/2 ton status
Ok, here goes. The story is a waaaaaaaaaaay long, but I need to tell it to get across the severity of the problem and what I may have done to my engine.
On Saturday, my buddy and I loaded up the kids and dogs and went off for a day of fun in the snow and maybe even a little light wheeling. Since I had the kids with me, the top off the rig, and only the factory roll bar, I wasn't planning on anything extreme. Now, add to that a radiator that has a small leak under high temp pressure, the fact that my buddy drives a zuki and can't tow me and...Here's what happened....
On the way up the hill (we took our normal route) we decided to make a run up one of the many hill climbs (one we have done countless times before w/out problems). Well, somebody had gotten stuck towards the top of this particular hill climb and dug a pretty good hole. I had to throttle it a bit to get out. Not too bad, but the rpms were about 3800. I got to the top of the hill, made a hard left and headed up to the snow. The hill climb and my throttle happy foot was enough to make my radiator say..SCREW YOU BUDDY!! and blow it's top...literally... /forums/images/graemlins/angryfire.gif /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif /forums/images/graemlins/1zhelp.gif Fortunately, by the time it blew, we were at the snow line where it was melting and there was a lot of running water across the trail. UNFORTUNATELY I didn't notice how bad I was overheating until the the steam was pouring out of every orifice it could under the truck. I looked at my temp gauge, it wasn't redlined or pegged out, so I jumped out of the truck, popped the hood, grabbed a shovel and started flinging snow as fast as I could into the eng. compartment, on top of the radiator, and into the grill to get snow onto the face of the radiator. I left the truck running while I was doing this in hopes that it would cool down slowly to minimize engine damage. I was also hoping that I caught it in time to prevent the gauge from redlining. No luck... /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif I had to shut it down. Once it cooled down enough, I bumped the starter to make sure it would turn over, it did, so I pulled the thermostat out, pulled off the rad. cap, and filled the radiator back up with fresh, ice cold mountain stream water. I fired it up and listened for bad sounds and to see if it was smoking. I checked the oil for that tell tale sign of water in it, and I let it sit for about 5 minutes watching the temp gauge like a hawk. It stayed very cool, so I turned around and coasted down the hill. Everything was fine until I hit the bottom of the hill and had to drop the rig into gear and hit the paved road for home. I couldn't make it 5 miles w/out overheating. I always shut it down well before it redlined, but it would always peg out. I had to stop and fill the radiator several times until I could get to a point where I could get a cell phone signal and call my wife to come tow me home. It overheated 5 times and a couple were hot enough to here sh*t crackling like it was on fire. The last time I shut it down, it wasn't overheated, but it was very warm. I am going to replace the radiator and hoses and flush out the system today. I may replace the water pump too if the bearings are bad. I'm also going to dump the oil and pull the filter to inspect them.
Now for the questions...what do I need to look for in addition to the above stuff? When we got it home, I filled the radiator back up and started it just long enough to get it into the garage. I didn't here any noises, it wasn't smoking, and I once again checked the oil for water in it, there wasn't any. I am going to replace my valve cover gaskets because it got so hot the covers were burning the residual oil off them /forums/images/graemlins/yikes.gif Is there anything else I need to look for? I'm sure I took a bunch of life off the engine, but I need to make sure I don't miss anything and have it totally blow up on me 'cause when it happens to me..I'm NEVER in a convenient spot close to home /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
So, any ideas?
Sheesh! This is the longest post I've EVER made! /forums/images/graemlins/yikes.gif /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif /forums/images/graemlins/whistling.gif
Sorry for the length of this.
On Saturday, my buddy and I loaded up the kids and dogs and went off for a day of fun in the snow and maybe even a little light wheeling. Since I had the kids with me, the top off the rig, and only the factory roll bar, I wasn't planning on anything extreme. Now, add to that a radiator that has a small leak under high temp pressure, the fact that my buddy drives a zuki and can't tow me and...Here's what happened....
On the way up the hill (we took our normal route) we decided to make a run up one of the many hill climbs (one we have done countless times before w/out problems). Well, somebody had gotten stuck towards the top of this particular hill climb and dug a pretty good hole. I had to throttle it a bit to get out. Not too bad, but the rpms were about 3800. I got to the top of the hill, made a hard left and headed up to the snow. The hill climb and my throttle happy foot was enough to make my radiator say..SCREW YOU BUDDY!! and blow it's top...literally... /forums/images/graemlins/angryfire.gif /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif /forums/images/graemlins/1zhelp.gif Fortunately, by the time it blew, we were at the snow line where it was melting and there was a lot of running water across the trail. UNFORTUNATELY I didn't notice how bad I was overheating until the the steam was pouring out of every orifice it could under the truck. I looked at my temp gauge, it wasn't redlined or pegged out, so I jumped out of the truck, popped the hood, grabbed a shovel and started flinging snow as fast as I could into the eng. compartment, on top of the radiator, and into the grill to get snow onto the face of the radiator. I left the truck running while I was doing this in hopes that it would cool down slowly to minimize engine damage. I was also hoping that I caught it in time to prevent the gauge from redlining. No luck... /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif I had to shut it down. Once it cooled down enough, I bumped the starter to make sure it would turn over, it did, so I pulled the thermostat out, pulled off the rad. cap, and filled the radiator back up with fresh, ice cold mountain stream water. I fired it up and listened for bad sounds and to see if it was smoking. I checked the oil for that tell tale sign of water in it, and I let it sit for about 5 minutes watching the temp gauge like a hawk. It stayed very cool, so I turned around and coasted down the hill. Everything was fine until I hit the bottom of the hill and had to drop the rig into gear and hit the paved road for home. I couldn't make it 5 miles w/out overheating. I always shut it down well before it redlined, but it would always peg out. I had to stop and fill the radiator several times until I could get to a point where I could get a cell phone signal and call my wife to come tow me home. It overheated 5 times and a couple were hot enough to here sh*t crackling like it was on fire. The last time I shut it down, it wasn't overheated, but it was very warm. I am going to replace the radiator and hoses and flush out the system today. I may replace the water pump too if the bearings are bad. I'm also going to dump the oil and pull the filter to inspect them.
Now for the questions...what do I need to look for in addition to the above stuff? When we got it home, I filled the radiator back up and started it just long enough to get it into the garage. I didn't here any noises, it wasn't smoking, and I once again checked the oil for water in it, there wasn't any. I am going to replace my valve cover gaskets because it got so hot the covers were burning the residual oil off them /forums/images/graemlins/yikes.gif Is there anything else I need to look for? I'm sure I took a bunch of life off the engine, but I need to make sure I don't miss anything and have it totally blow up on me 'cause when it happens to me..I'm NEVER in a convenient spot close to home /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
So, any ideas?
Sheesh! This is the longest post I've EVER made! /forums/images/graemlins/yikes.gif /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif /forums/images/graemlins/whistling.gif
Sorry for the length of this.
