improving my cooling '96 T444E

[brokedown]

Mine spends its entire live above 2100rpm.. but on long climbs that's about the max I run it at. It didn't take long to learn to embrace the slow climb.

[cadillackid]

Originally Posted by brokedown

Mine spends its entire live above 2100rpm.. but on long climbs that's about the max I run it at. It didn't take long to learn to embrace the slow climb.

mine did too before the trans upgrade... after the upgrade i can crowd on it pretty good.. ie engine load factor of 90% plus on a hill and it wont get hot as long as it is running lower RPM's. though it will often downshift to 4th on steep which runs my RPMs up.. the temp still tries to go up but i havent seen it get above 211 yet before I crest the hill.. of course the 444E isnt exactly a power house so gravity is often slowing me down.. bringing my RPMs down too.. but the engine load factor will stay 100% which seems to help to add to the heat..


when I was on flat ground at 65, 2400-2600 RPM it would get hot in anything above 85-90 outside.. the new fan allowed me to drive in 100 - 105 degree heat at 65 and I would see 212-217 temp gauge.. try to climb a hill in that heat though and I was done... had to slow it and get the REVs down then it would cool right off..

-Christopher

[brokedown]

If mountains were something I ran into regularly I would seriously consider adding another one of those fans to my radiator.. But 99.99% of my driving barely gets into the warm zone much less hot.

[cadillackid]

the temperature seems to drop pretty quick going up too... but i always seem to hit mountains on the hottest days.. when ive got the A/C blasting putting more load on the engine.. this last trip up north though was "nice" as it was actually cool enough once I got into the long 7% grades of virginia / West virginia. that I had the A/C off and the heater valve open.. (didnt have any heater fans on).. so I had that extra 5 gallons of coolant as a ballast.. my engine fan barely called on and I ran it foot to the floor flat out in 4th gear... stayed at 55-60 on 7% didnt seem too bad to me..
-Christopher

[brokedown]

Yeah I think I'd be OK if I wasn't only hitting mountains while they were at record high temps. I can drive flat ground all day long in 110 degree temps but things start to go sideways when I"m doing a 6% or more grade.

[pegabus]

After installing the recored radiator and switching to a 165 thermostat I'm finally not over heating. Stays solid at 209-211. I can tackle a big hill basically full throttle up an incline for 2 minutes solid and it hits 215 for maybe 30 seconds and drops back down. The AT545 is such a piece of s**t, it does add a lot of heat during up hill pulls, trans temp sky rockets but radiator and engine temp stay solid. So if your really having that much trouble you may have to bite the bullet and get that Radiator done, mine was done at 173K miles. glad I did though works fine now.

[brokedown]

My plan is to avoid mountains. My GF just told me she wants to cross through the Grand Tetons in Wyoming. SMH.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

[cadillackid]

Originally Posted by pegabus

After installing the recored radiator and switching to a 165 thermostat I'm finally not over heating. Stays solid at 209-211. I can tackle a big hill basically full throttle up an incline for 2 minutes solid and it hits 215 for maybe 30 seconds and drops back down. The AT545 is such a piece of s**t, it does add a lot of heat during up hill pulls, trans temp sky rockets but radiator and engine temp stay solid. So if your really having that much trouble you may have to bite the bullet and get that Radiator done, mine was done at 173K miles. glad I did though works fine now.

sounds like your results are similar to mine.. Navistar says those temps are perfetcly fine.. the oil temp will get nuch higher with an AT545.. thats what I found anyway was really high oil temps when the revs were up
-Christopher

[warewolff]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

you can hear the Horton pulling in and out in this video.. its LOUD when it runs..

-Christopher

Looking through old posts ... Christopher, what tablet / software are you running for that GUI? It's actually pretty nice.

[Rock-N-Ruth]

I was looking for threads regarding the thermostat and t-stat housing when i found this thread. I know it's an old thread and most of the guys who have posted here probably have come to a solution they can live with.

When we bought our bus in July of 2019 and ran it the 300 or so miles home from Phoenix to Freedom Field, NM it was hot. It was never below 105F all the way home. I recall as long as I ran it at 55MPH or less we had no overheat problems. when climbing the many hills on the way home we mostly downshifted into 3rd and crept along at about 2000rpm.

After we arrived home we found that we could run 65MPH between our place and Las Cruces and never get a warn. On the way home the steep hill on 10 going west out of Las Cruces would always get us down to about 30 MPH if we wanted to avoid the heat warning.

Then in November of 2019 we had a deep freeze. This is when we realized we hadn't ever tested the specific gravity of the coolant. Admittedly it was unlikely that there was any antifreeze in the water. The radiator split a seam.

I attempted to silver solder the seam. Then I took it to a radiator shop to see if they could save me. They dipped it and pressure tested it. The prognosis was it was too rotten to fix. They suggested I call Navistar for the price on a new one.

Well $1640.00 was a lot more than I wanted to spend. I found this radiator on ebay for much less and took a chance.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/25445144149....c100148.m2813



Three rows of core rather than the two the stock radiator has and about $500.00. I think it is even cheaper now.

The only trouble I had with the install was that the lower outlet was a different size than my original.

The results were amazing. I was only looking to replace the bad radiator and not really trying to boost performance but the end result was a much cooler running engine on hot days and the ability to head west out of Las Cruces up the big hill at 55 in 4th gear.

Thought it might be a help to anyone who might be needing a new radiator for their t444E or powerstroke engine.

[syntaxterror]

How did you mount your inter cooler since the original set up was a split design? Did you just mount it in front of the radiator?

[Rock-N-Ruth]

Originally Posted by syntaxterror

How did you mount your inter cooler since the original set up was a split design? Did you just mount it in front of the radiator?

The original radiator on our bus was not the split format. It was a full sized radiator and the intercooler is mounted behind the radiator. This is a rear engine format so by behind, I am saying closest to the engine.

[cadillackid]

Originally Posted by Rock-N-Ruth

The original radiator on our bus was not the split format. It was a full sized radiator and the intercooler is mounted behind the radiator. This is a rear engine format so by behind, I am saying closest to the engine.

you are Lucky because you dont have that dog gone split set up!!



as for those that do.. theres a thread on here someplace where part numbers were proposed of radiators and intercoolers that might work...



the biggest issue on the 3800 platform is that because the engine sits so far forward in the frame to do away with the doghouse of the DT360/466. that the stock radiator is set on a forward offset of 3/4 -1" (ive seen both).. and that causes clearance issues with the grill if you want to put an intercooler in front of the radiator.. trying to move the radiator back inward to the 'DT' position is a possibility if you run an electric fan clutch as the fan sits back toward the engine a little bit more with the electric clutch vs the viscous..

[syntaxterror]

Well $1640.00 was a lot more than I wanted to spend. I found this radiator on ebay for much less and took a chance.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/25445144149....c100148.m2813


The price jumped to $899 overnight.

[Rock-N-Ruth]

Originally Posted by syntaxterror

Well $1640.00 was a lot more than I wanted to spend. I found this radiator on ebay for much less and took a chance.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/25445144149....c100148.m2813


The price jumped to $899 overnight.

That kinda makes sense. When I bought it it was 650. I thought the 399 price was odd. They must have realized thier mistake and bumped it up.

Or they saw this post and bumped it up

[cadillackid]

how is that radiator going to work on a conventional bus? I know ruth's is an RE but I thought Syntax has a conventional.. it needs the rad with the 2 cutouts for the turbo hoses to go into the cooler.. the rad in the pics wont have room for the turbo lines..

[syntaxterror]

I was just following the link and noticed it went up. I did see a post on fb where someone got a complete cooler assembly from a international 530 in a 3800 medium duty truck and installed it in his mdt with a t444e.