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Re: 1993 Damon Intruder/P30 454 Overheating
Yep Gjac, we just did a sheet of paper test to confirm. It is pushing air out of the radiator. That explains why it was running cooler yesterday, I had the doghouse cover off the whole way home watching things, so it was sucking air in thru the coach. We're going to call the shop here in a minute to confirm the P/N on the water pump, but I'm betting this was the original issue. I'll update later when everything else has been sorted. I also still want to confirm the initial timing after this is all done, because lord only knows the last time that was checked.855Views0likes0CommentsRe: 1993 Damon Intruder/P30 454 Overheating
dougrainer, Thanks for the tstat tip, although I believe it's working correctly. I see the temp needle bumping around when the tstat should be opening. Talking about the orientation of the fan got me thinking, so I went out to check. Here's a photo of how it looks, disregard the shiny spot. That's just where I laid a piece of reflective tape for my laser tach. For reference, when you crank the engine the fan rotates to the left. Correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't the sweep of the fan follow the rotational direction of the fan? Would this not be trying to push air out of the radiator in it's current orientation?855Views0likes0CommentsRe: 1993 Damon Intruder/P30 454 Overheating
Ok well, after some more trouble shooting and just watching the engine run I have a little more information. The top and bottom radiator hoses are super soft, but neither of them seem to be collapsing under load. I am going to recommend to the shop that they try a severe duty fan clutch. I believe the Hayden P/N was 2797. What's your guys' experience with Hayden? I had read they're effectively identical to the ACDelco that was OEM on it. I did check the temperature of the back of the clutch with an IR gun, and it was reading around 170-175 but no engagement. The shroud is in rough shape, I bet it's the original plastic shroud and it's cracked and come apart in several places. As a temporary fix and just to see what would happen I got it set up roughly where it should be (the right side of the shroud was standing away from the radiator an inch or two) and covered the big gaps with some aluminum tape. That seems to have fixed the idle overheat, at least in the cool weather. I let it idle for about 30 minutes yesterday and it seemed fine. The sticker on the new fan is for a Dorman 621-108. It is a metal fan, looks like the OEM. Only thing is I'm unsure of the orientation of the original fan. It's not backwards, but if it's spinning the wrong way that's effectively the same thing. Lwiddis, Yea, I'm going to pick up a timing light and check the timing. That was one thing I had considered. Stock initial is 4* BTDC right? pianotuna, Do you happen to remember what manufacturer the fan was from? Or maybe a URL to that thread? If you can't find it no worries, and thanks for the tip Gjac, Good point, they had it sent somewhere to have that done. I'll double check that they physically cleaned the rad out. I checked the rad with my IR gun yesterday and the temps seemed fairly uniform BluegrassBill, Yea, that's what we're thinking next. It is a steel blade. I'm going to shoot them the Hayden P/N for a severe duty clutch DougE, Thanks for the tip about the clutch before install. Would a Hayden be acceptable re the above? MexicoWanderer, Thanks for the anecdotes, I'll keep them in mind. Especially driving the truck with no fan as a possible troubleshooting step. Although I'd prefer to avoid that if we can.856Views0likes0CommentsRe: 1993 Damon Intruder/P30 454 Overheating
That's kind of been my thought process, that something else is going wrong and the clutch may just be a symptom, even if it's an incorrect clutch. Reason being that even with a hole in the shroud and down a blade (presumably from the blade exiting it there) it got us home fine without any temperature issues. They did replace the water pump, I think I'll ask them for a part number tomorrow to make sure it's the right pump. Based on what I've read in other forum posts and such, the clutch should engage somewhere in the 150-170° range? Roughly equates to 210° on the dash, ideally. Is it possible there's a blockage inside the block from where sediment and other stuff may have settled when they drained the system? Or possibly just a narrow restriction and not a total blockage. I'm also going to verify that the hoses have been replaced, and if they haven't that might be our next step. I've read that old cooling hoses can look fine from the outside, but when put under pressure they collapse internally, cutting off coolant flow Update: Well, I guess I expected too much that they'd replace the hoses. The top one is super soft, I bet the bottom one is in similar condition187Views0likes0Comments1993 Damon Intruder/P30 454 Overheating
Hey guys, hope y'all are doing well. We're having some issues with our 1993 Damon Intruder with the big block in it. For some background, last summer we were road tripping across some of the north western states. On the way back home thru Wyoming we ended up throwing a blade from the clutched fan thru the bottom left of the fan shroud. Luckily it didn't have any issues getting us home, and had missed everything important. Simple fix right? Just replace the fan and all should be well. Weeeell, that hasn't been how it worked out. We had a heavy duty shop (an expansion shop of Houska Automotive if you know them) replace the fan because I didn't have the time to do it myself and with all the old brittle plastic I was worried about breaking things. Got the new OEM-alike fan in (5 blade offset), and it can't get down the road without pegging the gauge and blowing boiling water out of the overflow. Uh oh. Back to the shop. That was about 2 months ago, and they've basically replaced the whole cooling system since and it's still boiling water out of the overflow and pegging the gauge. A list of what was replaced: Engine fan (think a stress fracture caused the fan blade to dip out) Engine fan clutch, Heavy Duty (Idk if the clutch that's on it is right for the application, not sure of the cause but I'm pretty sure it's not engaging cuz I distinctly remember the sound it used to make. RockAuto and GmPartsWearhouse recommend a severe duty) Thermostat (Should be OE temp, whatever that is) Rodded the Radiator (Maybe even with a rodding this radiator still isn't pushing enough heat out?) Water pump (I'm wondering if the shop fixed the original problem and then created a new one with this. Iirc there's two pumps available, reverse rotation for serpentine systems and normal rotation for V-belt. I believe our P30 is outfitted with v-belts, so if they put in one for a serpentine system I imagine that would be an issue) New radiator cap (15 or 16 pound I believe) I believe the hoses have been replaced, but I'm not certain Also, the electric condenser fan does work. Obviously it's not moving enough air by itself to keep the engine cool. I'd read that dirt and dust can clog the space between condenser and radiator, but I'd assume the shop would have cleaned that space out when they had the radiator rodded. So, eventually it overheats at idle. If you drive it it just heats up quicker, which perplexes me, because I would think if it was a clutch issue the temps would get better at speed. Is this generation supposed to engage the clutch even at highway speeds? I had read that the clutch only engages up to a certain RPM and speed, but that may be incorrect or outdated or just not applicable to this application. Any insight would be great. Yesterday I covered the hole in the shroud (which I hadn't realized might be a problem until recently) with some aluminum tape, maybe thinking covering the hole would get the clutch to engage. No dice. The next thing I'm thinking of trying once we're home tomorrow is disengaging the end of the spring from the front of the clutch and seeing if I can engage it manually. My best guess currently is that the engine is overheating because the clutch isn't engaging. The next question is why isn't a brand new heavy duty clutch engaging. If you hose the rad down is cools off quick, if that adds any insight. Thoughts? Thanks for any help guys4.9KViews0likes21Comments
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