2013 Ecoboost overheating

If you just put it in D and T/H mode and just go to town on it, you just put too much boost into it for several minutes longer than it liked... That'll raise the coolant temps to trigger the overheat (limp mode) condition.

It's supposed to do that when it overheats so you don't end up with a nuclear meltdown.... Your truck did exactly what it was supposed to do when you were just pumping the boost to it.

These Eco's have great power. Just not great cooling when under boost for extended amounts of time (several minutes)

> 10 psi raises the temps the ECU reads so while you can usually get away with it for a couple of minutes, if you are just pumping that boost for longer than that, it's gonna trigger that limp mode.

That occurs around 250*. Then the ECU puts it in limp mode and tries to save itself.

I also tow a #7000 TT, but I monitor some additional vitals that the 'dashboard' does not and I also drive the truck by manually locking out the OD gears and not trying to be the first one to the top of the hill... :)

I'll bet that once you let off the pedal a bit, the temp dropped pretty quick.. That means the T-stat is working and you just reduced the boost so it was not a nuclear reactor.. That's what the turbos do when they are making all that great power..

Just not enough cooling to handle it.. Sucks for sure. I deal with it every time I tow, but now know how to monitor and use it and can still pull the grades at an easy 50-55 mph while keeping the temps no more than 225*

I know I'll raise heck for it, but it's just the fact and I would still not trade my Eco for a V8...

Good luck! Mitch

jdc1 wrote:
The thermostat would not know if you had a trailer or not.

Some fail to open 100%. Towing can make a difference.

For the OP... if you can tell if the engine takes longer to warm up it could be indicating thermostat is stuck partially open. Getting harder to tell with the dampened gauges and the warm summer.

IMO a radiator flush without a thermostat replacement is an incomplete exercise. Possibly hoses too.

Do you have an auxillary transmission cooler and extra fan??? I have used in 3 different Ram 1500 and 2500 trucks the green bottle of Rislone Hyper Cool water wetter coolant with dramatic cooling results in extreme hot weather running the AC in city stop and go traffic. Better than the Red Line water wetter I used to use.

Sometimes in older vehicles the lower radiator hose will collapse or partially collapse under high heat load stress but yours probably has the spring inside the hose. My last issue of truck overheating was due to air bubble inside the radiator but a radiator flush solved that problem.

Check your radiator cap pressure and they can do a thermostat check for intermittent operation.

The thermostat would not know if you had a trailer or not.