Driving diesel in very HOT temps - 103+ and long grades

Just drove the southwest late July with same heating issues. 350 Cat. Spray off your radiator before you leave. Mine worked best at about 2,000 rpm, keep down shifting. I had to hit 1st gear a few times, about 20 mph, turn your flashers on and drive slow. To cool down if needed pull over and rev the engine and your temp will come down then.

2oldman wrote:
You can't go earlier?

We will leave as early as we can to try and avoid some of the heat but those grades and rising heat are concerning me. We will not be driving in the absolute peak of the day's heat but it will be plenty hot as we approach our destination and the last big grade.

You can't go earlier?

On grades I drive by egt's and keep eye on all temps. Mine is Cummins and i dont go over 1200 on egt's. Not sure about cat. Dont forget to also cool down turbo before shut off. And dont stop at top once you make the top, keep going to cool stuff down. Things should work as designed. If overheats something not right. I think vantage hill is worse going west bound with headwind. Good shop in Quincy, doesn't take advantage of freeway traffic. I fuel at mile marker 101 Ellensberg I think. Vantage...not much and middle of nowhere, so to speak. You got cell service though.

1. Assuming this is a rear radiator, clean the FRONT of the cooling package (the front of the CAC). This needs to be done annually. It is done from the bedroom/closet access door. A clogged front of the CAC WILL overhead!

2. Use the down arrow to select a gear where you are about 200 RPM below governed AND, repeat AND, where you have a little throttle left (are not at WOT). If flooring the throttle makes no difference select a lower gear. Reality is that a loaded 18 wheeler will be slower than you, so no worries about traffic.

What to do as emergency moves if you are overheating:

1. Pull over and with transmission in Neutral, run engine at 1500 RPM or so until it cools down (yes, this assumes that you have not lost your coolant).

2. Turn on the dash heater and fan to high. The dash heater is another "radiator". Better to have you uncomfortable for a few minutes that really uncomfortable paying a large repair bill.

yes , downshift and keep rpms up

My 2005 Excursion with a 350 Cat C7 has handled 105F just fine so far, but I clean my radiator and inter-cooler once a year. When was the last time you cleaned yours? Check for any scrap paper, plastic grocery bags or other junk also that could have gotten sucked up in there also.

Also, I really like my Scan Gauge ($150 on Amazon) I have mine set to to the engine temp, oil temp, air intake temp and something else. The SD engine temp is a lot more accurate than your MH's gauge and the MH probably doesn't have an oil temp gauge or air intake gauge. When you see the air intake temps going up, then the engine temp could start going up also.

Bill

Catkins,

One thing you might want to consider is run the generator to operate the roof air units. Turn off your dash air to give the engine a little more horsepower.

Safe travels,
MM.