Community Forums

Donaldshoe · 01-26-2015, 04:04 PM

Has anyone removed the radiator from their horizon dp. mine has 100k on it and it tends to overheat on a long pull in the summer. I've cleaned the radiator with simple green and got a lot of crud out of it but i just don't feel its clean enough. If anybody has removed one any suggestions would be appreciated. My wife are going fulltime at the end of summer and i don't want any problems.

cbeierl · 01-26-2015, 05:20 PM

Here's an earlier thread by FIRE UP that might be useful: Diesel, rear radiator owners, check this out

bsamole · 01-27-2015, 06:06 AM

I have removed and cleaned the radiator in my 2000 Horizon twice. I was amazed in the amount of dirt that accumulated in the radiator fins. My symptons of a dirty radiator were on long uphill grades the engine would overheat but after pulling over and letting it idle for about a minute the engine would cool down. The job is very logical and not difficult. Just remove everything in the way including the bumper. Get a helper with the physical removal of the radiator and intercooler as they come out as a single unit and the combination is very heavy. Assuming yours is a cat this is a great time to replace the belts, hoses, thermostats, grease the pulley near the water pump and extend the zert to allow easy access in the future. Also if you haven't already extend the blow by tube past the rear bumper since this is probably the cause of dirt build up in the radiator since the blow by oil tends to stick to the radiator catching dirt and clogging the radiator fins.
There are quite a few post on this subject on the IRV2 cat forum. This one seems to be very helpful.
http://www.irv2.com/forums/f26/rear-...ng-163541.html

lwasouth · 01-31-2015, 08:43 AM

JUST A CAUTION: "Simple Green" eats aluminum. If you want to use Simple Green to clean your radiator you have to get "Simple Green Extreme" used for cleaning aircraft.
Usually costs $23 to $28 per gallon plus shipping.
I found a product that works as well if not better "Dawn Platinum Power Clean" at your local grocery store. Dissolves oil and grease and rinses it out with water.

FIRE UP · 01-31-2015, 10:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Donaldshoe

Has anyone removed the radiator from their horizon dp. mine has 100k on it and it tends to overheat on a long pull in the summer. I've cleaned the radiator with simple green and got a lot of crud out of it but i just don't feel its clean enough. If anybody has removed one any suggestions would be appreciated. My wife are going fulltime at the end of summer and i don't want any problems.

Donaldshoe,
Chris has linked my original thread about removing, cleaning and re-installing the radiator on our '04 Itasca Horizon 36GD with the C-7 330HP CAT. First off, on different years of Horizon, the grill changed some. One some, it's not removeable and some, it is. Obviously being removable makes things a lot easier to work on and, remove and replace big items.

It's not an overly complicated job. Just very time consuming and, in some cases, you have to be double jointed so you can bend yourself into positions to get wrenches on and, access certain bolts, clamps and more. Now, some of the boys here have removed both the radiator and the CAC as one unit. That's insane. The radiator itself hovers around maybe, 50-60 lbs. or so and, the CAC maybe around 30-40. And, talk about cumbersome and awkward trying to handle both of them at once.

So, my advice, take your time, take a ton of pictures of brackets, angles of things, hose placement, certain nut and bolt arrangements and whatever you think might be hard remembering what went where.

I will say this, you are correct in assuming that, you cannot get a radiator and CAC thoroughly clean, while their in the coach. It's just an almost impossible job to do a bang-up, thorough, efficient and complete cleaning of them without removing them.

The next thing is to make darn sure that your oil level in the engine is EXACTLY where it's supposed to be. If your dip stick has not been calibrated for your particular oil pan, do it. And finally, if your "blow-by" tube has not been extended, DO IT! Mine is all the way out the back of the coach, sitting right alongside the exhaust pipe. I get no spitting on the toad and, my radiator and CAC have been almost spotless now for a couple of years and about 20,000 miles. Good luck and surely PM me if you'd like any advice on your situation.
Scott