Community Forums

rhenning · 07-20-2021, 05:08 PM

We have a 2001 Adventurer with an 8.1. We have about 99,000 miles on it. I am wondering if our motorhome runs warmer than it should. On a recent 300 mile trip in North Dakota with outside air in the low to mid 90's our dash gauge occasionally would get as high as 215 to 220 until the fan would kick in, and then it would drop to around 210. The scan gauge at the same time would get as high as 231 before dropping down to 215 to 220. I had the radiator flushed and new coolant added two weeks before the trip. Yesterday I replaced the thermostat going from a 195 to a 180. On a 15 mile test drive today with outside air around 85 I noticed about a 5 degree improvement, with the dash gauge not going above 212 and the scan gauge not going above 227, and then both dropping when the clutch fan kicked in. The fan seemed to kick in when the dash gauge was slightly under 210. These temps are while driving around 60 mph. I would appreciate your thoughts or experiences. Thank you.

edgray · 07-20-2021, 05:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rhenning

We have a 2001 Adventurer with an 8.1. We have about 99,000 miles on it. I am wondering if our motorhome runs warmer than it should. On a recent 300 mile trip in North Dakota with outside air in the low to mid 90's our dash gauge occasionally would get as high as 215 to 220 until the fan would kick in, and then it would drop to around 210. The scan gauge at the same time would get as high as 231 before dropping down to 215 to 220. I had the radiator flushed and new coolant added two weeks before the trip. Yesterday I replaced the thermostat going from a 195 to a 180. On a 15 mile test drive today with outside air around 85 I noticed about a 5 degree improvement, with the dash gauge not going above 212 and the scan gauge not going above 227, and then both dropping when the clutch fan kicked in. The fan seemed to kick in when the dash gauge was slightly under 210. These temps are while driving around 60 mph. I would appreciate your thoughts or experiences. Thank you.

FWIW, I think those temps are higher than normal. Even with the stock 195* T-stat, my 2003 W-22s "normal" running temp would remain around 200*F and my fan clutch would engage at around 207-210*F according to my SG II. This would be on flat land towing a car. Yours should have at least one electric fan in front of the radiator. Do you know if it comes on?

F4Gary · 07-20-2021, 06:00 PM

Might be your temp sender.
My engine fan kicks in at 204 and stops at 202 on my scan gauge. The dash gauge is more like an idiot light. Doesn't really tell you much.
Hottest I've seen it 219 and that was climbing out of Needles and the OAT was 111.

rhenning · 07-20-2021, 06:31 PM

I have seen the front fans come on, usually if the ac is on. I have also seen the engine fan on. I have assumed the fan noise I hear when driving is the clutch fan, however it could also be the front fans. Although I think they are on with the ac, especially this warm. Does the scan gauge get it's information from the same source as the dash gauge?

Isaac-1 · 07-20-2021, 06:51 PM

I would suspect either a temperature bad sender, or a fan clutch going out.

ktoutoor · 07-20-2021, 07:34 PM

It may be your fan clutch I replaced this for a guy while in Fort wilderness one year he was over heating also in this video I spin the fan blade to show you what a worn out clutch looks like then at the end of the video I spin the new one and wow what a difference.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arVkjHR1PSA

rhenning · 07-20-2021, 08:57 PM

Thank you for that video. I will give mine the spin test tomorrow. I have watched a few of your other videos. They are all very informative.

donr103 · 07-20-2021, 08:58 PM

have you replaced the eng coolant pump? only resaon i ask is that most of the time when fan clutch goes out. it takes the bearing on the coolant pump, water pump.. you are going to be right there and 100,000 miles.. it is time.. over time maybe. you can shop around and get a performance pump that is up to you.. and save your coolant and use a fine paint filter to re use, if you want.. if it were mine.. 100,000 miles.. i would drop to 160 thermostat. dont worry unless you drive in below 20 degrees , she will warm up.. just old gear head opinion. good luck and let us know what you did.. i even went so far as to add another performance eng oil cooler and other gear head tricks..

wolfe10 · 07-20-2021, 09:04 PM

A 160 degree thermostat in a 2001 8.1???

NO WAY.

Get the correct OE thermostat.

ktoutoor · 07-21-2021, 12:45 AM

I just noticed you have 99,000 mile on your workhorse you may be do for both a fan clutch and a water pump. If the water pump has never been changed? I think our 8.1 water pump started leaking around 40,000 miles. But our fan clutch is still going.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcrKZbW-ueY&t

F4Gary · 07-21-2021, 10:30 AM

Hey Kevin,
Can you just replace the fan clutch or do you have to replace the fan also?
Do they come apart?

rhenning · 07-21-2021, 10:54 AM

Just checked our clutch, it does not free wheel at all. In fact it turns like the new one Kevin installed on the video. I suppose our pump could be week, however it does not leak. Again thanks for all the ideas.

CRV2 · 07-21-2021, 11:52 AM

I will add that the first video explaining how to test a fan clutch isn't a great video. The reason is that a good fan clutch can certainly free wheel the fan when the engine temp is not high or not free wheel, especially after the engine has not run for a while, as in overnight. So if you recently shut off the engine and the fan is able to free wheel, that doesn't necessarily mean the fan clutch is bad. The only real test is to determine if the clutch engages at a higher temp, and that can be hard to test for. One way to do that test is to determine the air flow and you can do that just by listening to the fan or having your hand in front of or behind the fan to feel the air flow (be careful of course). The air flow should be minimal up until the air coming out of the radiator is hot enough to engage the fan (different engines, different temps) but around 205~210 is common. Point being, is even if your fan clutch has resistance like a new one when you try to spin it by hand, that in of itself doesn't mean that the fan clutch will engage at ~207 and it doesn't mean it will not engage, that is why I say that the test is not all that great to start with. Perhaps a better test would be once the air flowing out of the radiator gets to ~210 you should notice that the fan blows a lot harder and makes a much louder sound, especially if you idle up a bit. Another way to say this is that just because the fan clutch engages and disengages, doesn't mean that it is engaging at ~205 degrees and instead it could be engaging at 215 degrees. ~CA

One other thought to add, when a viscous fan clutch loses some of its fluid (but not all of it) it can appear to be working normally but never fully engaging the fan. I would consider changing the fan clutch as even if it isn't bad now, they usually don't last forever anyway.