fan clutch issues? 1994 Damon intruder 454 Chevyq

[ceephis]

Good morning all I've been having some overheating issues on stops and in stop and go traffic.



I just replaced a radiator cap as it's the easiest first fix to see if that helps.



I'm also currently flushing the radiator with evaporust radiator cleaning solution. It has been kicking up some junk and maybe cleaning out some portions of the radiator that are off limits due to clogging or crud from years of use. However we're still dealing with overheating on stop and go and idling.



I have an aching suspicion it's my fan clutch.



The fan clutch is nice and tight and doesn't rotate freely it also doesn't have any play in any direction.


From what I understand these are all signs of a healthy fan clutch.



My question is does this year of Damon intruder happen to have a electric clutch of some sort that might have come disconnected or harmed in some way?



Thanks as always for your wisdom and insight into this it means a lot

[SafariBen]

The fan clutch is a good suspect for overheating at idle and stop and go traffic. I can't tell you how to test it. The only other thing I'd try is use a non contact thermometer when it's as hot as you dare get it, before it boils over. Getting hot at idle without losing coolant will not cause any damage. If you can measure the temp of the thermostat housing or the last part of the engine going to the radiator, and the first part of the engine with the cool water from the radiator, those temps will tell you what's going on, UNLESS, the water circulation and air circulation are equally reduced. But usually it will be obvious that one or the other is restricted. Less than ten degrees F drop, air restricted. More than twenty degrees F, water restricted.

[ceephis]

When you say getting hot at idle without losing coolant would hurt are you saying that as long as the radiator does not depressurize or boil over im fine?


Definitely trying to understand all this radiator stuff.



It seems to go right up to the start of the red on my guage and stay there. Never saw it actually break into the red yet but damn it is right up on it.



Another odd thing yesterday after driving for a while I stopped at a truck stop to take a brake and left the truck idling and there was little to no increase in temp. But when I did the same later in the trip there was an increase.



Neither time was I facing the wind. Which was about 20 plus mph.



So odd what I'm experiencing with this machine.


Thank you for your wisdom and helping me figure this out.



Do you know where the temp guage is on these engines? I could replace it with a digital one. I got a beautiful guage for my transmission and it works quite well I could do the same for my engine to make sure.


Thanks again for your wisdom and help

[SafariBen]

Yes, at idle, as long as the coolant is full, you're not going to damage it by letting it run up to the red while you check temps. The engine doesn't care if it's 200 vs 250F, the critical parts are way hotter than that anyway. The overheating temp is where the cooling system fails because the coolant boils and doesn't keep the engine a uniform temp anymore, air cooled or oil cooled engines run much hotter because air doesn't boil. I would not want to climb a hill or accelerate onto a highway with the temp in the red, but if you know it cools at higher speeds, it won't be a problem.


A non contact thermometer will verify your dash gauge readings. I don't know where the temp gauge is, typically it will be near the thermostat housing, but look it up, not a rare engine.

[ceephis]

The hotter of the two images below is what I see once stopped driving. The second one is at idle when I let the truck sit for a little bit not moving

Originally Posted by SafariBen

Yes, at idle, as long as the coolant is full, you're not going to damage it by letting it run up to the red while you check temps. The engine doesn't care if it's 200 vs 250F, the critical parts are way hotter than that anyway. The overheating temp is where the cooling system fails because the coolant boils and doesn't keep the engine a uniform temp anymore, air cooled or oil cooled engines run much hotter because air doesn't boil. I would not want to climb a hill or accelerate onto a highway with the temp in the red, but if you know it cools at higher speeds, it won't be a problem.


A non contact thermometer will verify your dash gauge readings. I don't know where the temp gauge is, typically it will be near the thermostat housing, but look it up, not a rare engine.

[SteveD]

You don't mention the MILEAGE on your rig. I'd suggest you change the thermostat next if replacing the fan clutch does no good. You could also REMOVE the thermostat for a test. The thermostat is only a 'tool' to allow your engine to heat up reasonably fast on cool/cold days.


If that doesn't fix it, considering the age of your engine, I'd pull the radiator and have it 'rodded out' (that means, the the sides of the rad are REMOVED and then a 'rod' is used to clean out all of the cross tubes) by a radiator shop. You can also just LOOK into the radiator (when cold) via the main cap and see if you can see WHITE STUFF in the ends of the cross tubes (you may need to drain some antifreeze to be able to see the ends of the tubes). If you see that, then you need to at least FLUSH the radiator with some additive (follow the directions) and see if that helps. It it doesn't, then your next step would be as above. Remove and 'rod out' the radiator .. or just replace the radiator. Odds are good that if your '94 engine rad has NOT been already replaced, it's over due.
Steve

[ceephis]

Steve,



Thanks so much for the suggestion. The thermostat was the first thing I replaced as removing it also necessitated flushing the radiator or at least it helped.



Strangely enough I didn't get anywhere near the 8 gallons of radiator fluid out. I pulled off the large radiator hose at the bottom because I couldn't get the radiator drain out. And didn't want to break it. I still only got around 2 to 4 gallons of antifreeze out of it I don't know how much the engine itself holds but I was hoping that would drain out too through that large tube.



I eventually evaporust's radiator cleaner in it as it's a cleaner that can be run as long as I want without damaging the engine. And we're in the middle of a trip right now so until I find a good place to stop and flush it again I don't think I'll be able to work on a schedule of a few hours for most of the radiator flushes out there.



I do wonder how much of my radiator could be clogged. Replacing it would probably be easier than getting it roded out. Even that would be very difficult I'm disabled so those kind of things are really tough. So I'm hoping the radiator cleaner will break up what's in there and get it moving again. Maybe wishful thinking but that's what I'm doing currently


Any other suggestions are deeply appreciated.

Originally Posted by SteveD

You don't mention the MILEAGE on your rig. I'd suggest you change the thermostat next if replacing the fan clutch does no good. You could also REMOVE the thermostat for a test. The thermostat is only a 'tool' to allow your engine to heat up reasonably fast on cool/cold days.


If that doesn't fix it, considering the age of your engine, I'd pull the radiator and have it 'rodded out' (that means, the the sides of the rad are REMOVED and then a 'rod' is used to clean out all of the cross tubes) by a radiator shop. You can also just LOOK into the radiator (when cold) via the main cap and see if you can see WHITE STUFF in the ends of the cross tubes (you may need to drain some antifreeze to be able to see the ends of the tubes). If you see that, then you need to at least FLUSH the radiator with some additive (follow the directions) and see if that helps. It it doesn't, then your next step would be as above. Remove and 'rod out' the radiator .. or just replace the radiator. Odds are good that if your '94 engine rad has NOT been already replaced, it's over due.
Steve

[SteveD]

I would think that no more than about 3 gallons would be IN the engine. When you drain and flush, you need to open whatever drains you can and then force clean WATER through the entire system with the engine running until you only have CLEAN water flowing out. That would be RIGHT AFTER you have run the 'flush stuff' through it.


Run the engine until it's HOT (meaning the thermostat should be OPEN). It's a bit of a crap shoot, since the thermostat will CLOSE as soon as the incoming clean water hits it.... Really, at this age, you need to remove the thermostat for this process.


I'm not familiar with your rig/engine setup, but you are probably right.. the most appropriate action is likely to just REPLACE the radiator .. unless you have some indication that it's already been replaced 'recently'. 1994 was a LONG TIME ago. You also haven't mentioned the mileage, but 21 years is a LONG TIME ago, regardless. You will be 'doing good' to have it replaced.
Yours is a gasser, but probably still the same. I replaced the rad on my '94 DP that had always run 'near' max temp and it made an astounding difference. Before the change, we always had a 'piping hot' bedroom above the engine. AFTER the new rad, it was like 'heaven' back there, comparatively speaking.. and the dash then indicated right around 'thermostat temperature' instead of 30 degrees above that.



You might also want to add a 'SIG' to your account. It's always better to have your rig info in your sig when you ask questions so readers can know exactly what your setup is.

[SafariBen]

I would not suspect the radiator for overheating at idle and stop and go traffic. Take the temps and get back to us with the numbers.

[ceephis]

Originally Posted by SafariBen

I would not suspect the radiator for overheating at idle and stop and go traffic. Take the temps and get back to us with the numbers.

What temps are you interested in? And how would you like me to take them? Couple of posts above I included pictures of two temps under idle. If you want more please let me know

[Soppy]

If the fan clutch is working properly, you should hear a loud roar from the fan when the clutch engages. After I replaced the fan clutch on my 93, the fan noise was very noticeable.The reason it didn't overheat when parked idling is the transmission is in neutral and not producing as much heat as when in gear in traffic. According to your photo, you are still in the operating range even though it is on the high side. The fan clutch should cut in around that temperature and not let the gauge go into the red. As longas it doesn't go into the red, you don't have anything to worry about. If the fan clutch isn't working or the radiator is plugged, a new or lower temp thermostat will not help.

[David 70]

Before replacing things like the fan clutch and the thermostat inspect the front of the radiator. Not just the front of the ac condenser, but in between the two. I was having the same problem with my 2000 7.4L and after replacing thermostat twice and the fan clutch, I finally pulled the AC/oil cooler and found the front of the radiator 90% covered with a lint type of material. I cleaned it and all was fine. A simple way to initially check this is if you have auxiliary fans in front of the stack look to see if they rotate when the engine is running. This is what my radiator looked like.

[David 70]

Also, what engine do you have? It would be good to add a monitoring system hooked to the OBD port to get the correct readings from all the gauges. Those dash gauges on most do not read very accurate.
I looked at the title again and I see you have the 454. I am assuming you have the old GM chassis. Those gauges especially are problematic. My 2000 WH chassis always showed way low on the temp gauge. The speedometer also showed low on the speed until about 70. I use a Scan GaugeII now, so I know better how they are working.

[SteveJ.]

One of the issues we had with our Trek with a 7.4 was that there was no air dam on top of the radiator. In slow traffic or stopped the air that was cooling the radiator was simply recirculating over the top of the rad and going through again and again in a circle. Installing pieces of foam on top of and along the sides of the rad eliminated the problem for us and also made the A/C work much better in stop and go traffic and likely improved airflow through the already hot engine compartment.

As mentioned earlier, do inspect the front of the actual rad for stuff that would interfere with airflow.