engine overheating in mountains

[jeephauler]

hi everyone, just made a toyhauler conversion to haul my jeep to trail heads. i never have a problem with overheating around town but in the mountains and on mountain backroads its overheating on me. i though about putting one or 2 electric fans on the front of the radiator to supplement the existing fan. just wanted to see what everyone thought and what steps i should take in troubleshooting this. i am new to the skoolie world. thanks everyone.

[jeephauler]

should have added this but i wasnt thinking. the bus is a 1986 ford turbo diesel, thanks

[busone]

What engine do you have? Do you know what the condition of the radiator is? I would flush all the coolant out and replace with 50/50. As you probably know use distilled water, the minerals in the tap water will make the system less efficient. Another thing is to make sure your cooling fan is working properly. The clutch may be bad.

On my bus if I am climbing a long steep grade I need to manually downshift to keep the RPMs up. I know my 8.2 does not like to be lugged. If I keep the RPMs up it will run right at 190f. If I don't manually downshift the transmission it will get up to 210f and stay right there.

Going up cabbage patch hill in eastern Oregon a couple months ago she stayed right at 200f.

[the_experience03]

Oh sure....and I'm considering taking my weather front with to keep my 6.6 Ford diesel WARM enough to heat my veggie oil on my trip. Aside from the obvious things like the thermostat, coolant level, belt tension, etc, I would also check other things. Make sure your intercooler isn't clogged up. Because it is in front of the radiator, it can do a lot to prevent proper cooling. Also, what condition is your transmission in? The transmission is cooled by the radiator. In fact, Ford states in the manual that tranny temperature should be monitored via the engine temp gauge though I think that's hardly accurate.