John, a few things. First a water restricter will flow as much or more than
a fully open thermostat. The reason it may work better is the cooling is
done right away (when the truck is moving or the electric fan is on) you
don't have to wait for the temps to raise until the thermostat opens. This
being said (as explained to me) I went ahead and installed the red (largest
hole) water restrictor plate... I fired up the motor in the garage for 5
minutes checking for leaks... I went into the truck to check the temps
expecting a very low temp... it was reading just over halfway or about 220!
Not good for only 5 minutes. This was with the A/C off, electric fan off and
the temp outside was 75 degrees. I took the truck out for a spin.... a soon
as I started to move the temps plunged to about 150 as long as I was
moving... (just as yours does) I was happy with the temps for the most
part... except when I came to a stop or in traffic they went back up to 210
or halfway on the gauge. (no bad but not great) I put the A/C on and took
the truck home and parked it with the motor running and the A/C on.... the
temp slowly crept up to 3/4 gauge. All in all not much better than the 180
stat I had in there. I cannot really recommend this as a fix now... I
apologize. It helps but not enough. I also think one of my problems is that
the fan thermostat switch is set to kick on at 170 degrees... the truck has
to run for a while before the fan kicks on. I am going to overide this
problem for now by adding a manual switch to turn the fan on at all times
when the truck is running. I think this will also help some. In the end....
an electric fan is not enough to cool the V-8 magnum at ALL times. One can
get away with it 99% of the time... but it's that 1% when you are stuck in
uphill traffic on a hot day that gets ya. If your V-8 Magnum is your daily
driver.... I do not suggest an electric fan. Since I hardly use my truck and
race it more than I drive it... I am going to stick it out.
Charles Smith
99 RC R/T 360
13.64 @ 99 N/A
> From: "John Neff" <jndneff@texas.net>
>
> Please explain. I don't see how a lower temp stat is going to keep the
truck
> cool, if a 180 fails to keep the truck under 240. The 180 is open and
> flowing big time by the time it hits 200. The 160 stat is going to open
> sooner, but if the fan isn't pulling enough air to keep the radiator cool,
> then the cooler stat isn't going to solve that. As soon as I start moving,
> more air through the radiator, the coolant temp drops fast. I can go from
> 240 back down to about 185 in less than 5 minutes. I need more air through
> the radiator. FWIW, I have the factory heavy duty package which includes a
> tranny cooler mounted between the radiator and A/C condenser. Maybe this
is
> what's causing the problem. I don't know.
>
> Water restrictor. I looked at this on Moroso's site and looks like this is
> going to make it harder for the coolant to leave the engine. If this is
> true, then the engine will run even hotter because by the time the coolant
> hits the radiator, it's going to be even hotter, and I can't cool down
what
> I have right now.
>
> What I do know is that I must get the truck back to a reliable situation
or
> I'm going to have big problems very soon. And, I have to do this on a very
> limited budget. Since the factory fan provided more than enough cooling,
and
> the electric doesn't, I'm going back to what works.
>
> Guys, I don't mean to sound like a dick right now. I'm just very
frustrated
> by the fact that this fan is unable to keep my truck cool in our Texas
> summers in stop and go traffic. Moving down the highway, or through town,
> everything works fine. But in stop and go traffic, it's not cutting it.
> Imagine what would happen if I tried to creep down a rocky trail. The
truck
> would probably boil over, or worse yet, burst the end caps on the
radiator.
> I'm just a little miffed that unless someone has been through what I'm
going
> through, and has an easy and cheap solution, I'm going to have to bolt
that
> HP sucking factory fan back on.
>
> John
>
>
> >Here is another idea. Keep the fan and use a 160 degree thermostat.... or
> >even a Moroso water restricter. Dan Bennet from the rtml has used these
> with
> >his Flex-a-lite fan and runs very cool... as low as 130 in the hot summer
> >weather. He says he has not had any check engine lights yet. I am going
to
> >try the red Moroso water restricter today with my Perma-Cool 16" electric
> >fan... got to get the gasket and then it is going in. If you are
interested
> >I can let you know the results. For you it would probably be better to
> start
> >with the 160 stat. I am going with the the water restricter because I
need
> >the motor to be as cool as possible to stave of detonation at the track
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