CK5
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The Shop Truck

1971 Chevy C20 with a custom flat bed.
The Nautical is on the island, has a roped off swim area. There is a play ground type attraction out in the bay.
Is one of the oldest hotels has a great location
 
Well, the test run to Payson didn't work out. Temps kept climbing every time we hit a hill, slowing down didn't help, I'd have to stop to let it cool with the engine idling.

At this point, I'm thinking it's the radiator I got from Brother's Trucks a while back. We stopped on the way home and we're going to try to replicate what I had in the Blazer when this engine was in it. Stock radiator, modified fan shroud, stock fan clutch and fan. We also picked up a new water pump, thermostat and cap. Waiting for it to cool down now.
 
Radiator size at speed is usually the issue with overheating, unless its a air blockage problem. If its cooling at idle it is not a fan issue.
 
We looked at the coolant, it's very cloudy with rust. I think Shawn ran straight water in it, then it sat for several years. I'm wondering if the impeller disintegrated on the pump.

We got rid of the parts from the blazer that I was going to use. At this point, we're going to flush the hell out of the engine, replace the water pump and thermostat and try again. I need to do some research on who makes the best LS swap radiator and out that in.
 
I had to get what was available today. I'm really sick of chasing cooling problems, I was really hoping the hood louvers would be the magic bullet they were on the SIlverado.
 
It's got to be a flow issue. My LT would not get above 165* with the factory 4 row and a 5/8" heater hooked to the wrong line.
 
I had to get what was available today. I'm really sick of chasing cooling problems, I was really hoping the hood louvers would be the magic bullet they were on the SIlverado.
I run a big block radiator, stock water pump and t stat, a hd fan clutch and never got it over 205.

Now I have a duramax radiator and electric fans it will get to 212 idling but driving it doesn’t go over 205. I’m thinking about going back to the big block radiator cause it just doesn’t fit right without some tricky fab.
 
I think we made some progress today. I sucked all the coolant out of the radiator, put some flush in and filled it with tap water. We ran the truck for 30-40 minutes to get it nice and hot, then started sucking out 3 gallons and adding 3 gallons. Lather rinse repeat for I don't know how many hours and probably 40ish gallons of water, it was clean. The last two flushes were with RO water. We never let it cool off and let the fans cycle a couple times along with revving it up every fill and the water was mostly clear by the end. It had a faint orange tint with a little bit of cloudiness which is probably just dissolved air.

We're done for the night, but we'll get back at it tomorrow after work. We just need to modify the water pump heater fittings and add a steam port return, then we can swap it out along with the thermostat.

I'm not sure if it's wishful thinking, but every flush it seemed like it took longer for the fans to kick in and they ran for less time. Either way, this is all it's getting, it's likely the first real test run will be driving it to Lake Havasu on Wednesday afternoon.
 
Hopefully that RO sat in there long enough to take a bite, and things will improve
 
Good luck with the fan clutch, we've had a bad run of them on a handful of vehicles around here. Including trying to get Riley's truck a little cooler on the highway during the UA driving around Mesa and points east. We left home with a flex fan on a direct coupler and it got a little warmish on long pulls at interstate speeds in somewhat hot weather. Using numbers, long grades on I-70 on 90-ish degree afternoon at 70+mph generated 210-213 and climbing slowly but we always hit a flat or downhill before it got over 213. So we thought a clutch fan would be a good idea to try. Found a 5 blade fan from a 1-ton van and bought a "HD" clutch at Oreilly then proceeded to hit 210 driving on the slower speed roads getting to the trail and got to 220 driving up a wash to the trail. So we put the flex fan back on and it was good for the rest of the trip. Other than eating more gas and making more noise anyway. This is with a stock BBC radiator and shroud on a pretty mild engine. Maybe a 7 blade fan would work better but I have my doubts. This truck is supposed to be able to tow a trailer in situations like this and while a set of 40s is a reasonable amount of drag, it's not working it all that hard for what a K30 can do.

Basically, our brand new clutch wasn't locking up enough to pull enough air. After we pulled off the trail and swapped the direct drive flex fan back on, it went up the same wash at 180.
 
The “new” parts situation really blows.
I’ve also been through two junk fan clutches on my suburban. The new waterpump is trickling out of the weep hole….
On my 4.0 jeep, the old waterpump lasted about 5-6 yrs untill it started leaking out the weep hole so i changed it. Now with the new pump it consistently runs 15-20 degrees hotter. :angry1:
 
And yes, it sucks we didn't get a chance to even say hi when we were in your neighborhood. We ended up leaving about half a day late and chewed up our remaining "free" time working on stupid fans that should have been left alone.
I didn't even realize you were in AZ, sorry we couldn't meet up. We decided not to go with the fan clutch/fan/stock radiator. I thought I still had a bunch of the parts from the Blazer, but they're gone. It was going to run about $600 for a temporary solution, so we're going to stick with what we have for now. Hopefully the flushing helps, but even if it's the same as it was before, the trip to Havasu doesn't have any steep grades like the trip to Payson, so I think we'll be fine. When we get back, we'll look for a better radiator and make a nice shroud for my DeltaPag fans.
The “new” parts situation really blows.
I’ve also been through two junk fan clutches on my suburban. The new waterpump is trickling out of the weep hole….
On my 4.0 jeep, the old waterpump lasted about 5-6 yrs untill it started leaking out the weep hole so i changed it. Now with the new pump it consistently runs 15-20 degrees hotter. :angry1:
It's not just parts store parts either, even OEM parts direct from the dealer have terrible quality control.
 
Last night was rough, we ran into a few issues with the water pump swap and leaks from the new thermostat housing, but thankfully I was just testing with RO water, no coolant. After the third install, we finally got it to hold pressure with no leaks. We sucked out enough water to add a gallon of dexcool and a bottle of vp racing cool down (water wetter).

We started there engine and let it warm up and burp out all the air. I was beginning to wonder if it would ever heat up enough to kick the fans on with the heater on high (blower on low), but it finally did. It also seemed like the radiator and hoses were way hotter than when we were flushing the system the day before, so I think we made some improvements. We didn't finish working on it until 9:30 so no test drive.

When I get home from work, we're going to mount the spare tire, then take it on a nice long test drive. Hopefully the next update has good news.
 
Last night was rough, we ran into a few issues with the water pump swap and leaks from the new thermostat housing, but thankfully I was just testing with RO water, no coolant. After the third install, we finally got it to hold pressure with no leaks. We sucked out enough water to add a gallon of dexcool and a bottle of vp racing cool down (water wetter).

We started there engine and let it warm up and burp out all the air. I was beginning to wonder if it would ever heat up enough to kick the fans on with the heater on high (blower on low), but it finally did. It also seemed like the radiator and hoses were way hotter than when we were flushing the system the day before, so I think we made some improvements. We didn't finish working on it until 9:30 so no test drive.

When I get home from work, we're going to mount the spare tire, then take it on a nice long test drive. Hopefully the next update has good news.
If you believe your system had a lot of rust, evaporust had a product for the cooling system, you put it in and you go, it works at cleaning constantly.
You can flush it out after a while and put the permanent coolant but it's not corrosive like normal flushes so it can stay longer.
I did that on a vehicle that sat for a while after a radiator leak
 
If you believe your system had a lot of rust, evaporust had a product for the cooling system, you put it in and you go, it works at cleaning constantly.
You can flush it out after a while and put the permanent coolant but it's not corrosive like normal flushes so it can stay longer.
I did that on a vehicle that sat for a while after a radiator leak
We'll, see how it goes, but I think between the new pump and the flush, we're good. I forgot to mention that my two temp sensors were a lot closer to the same temp after the work. They're only about 10° different now.
 
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