Feets,

You might look at some sort of blockage in your radiator. We have been through this issue twice with my wife's Durango, and it is a far more common problem than most people realize.

Usually if it is the radiator, the vehicle will only heat up at speed, much like an airflow problem due to improper ducting through the radiator.

I have seen this happen with radiators which looked to be in great shape visually, and some which were only a couple of years old. Older cars driven only locally around town are notorious for it.

May God bless you and yours,

Paladin

Pull the spring out of the lower hose. Fire it up and if you have a rad blockage it will suck flat real fast - or just pull the lower hose and with the cap off you should get close to a full outlet of water gushing out.

Thanks for the input. I know my radiator has some gunk in it but it still dumps fluid nicely.
There is no spring in the new lower hose but it's not sucking flat.

Paladin, you just might make a man out of that boy yet.

I pulled everything out tonight. It was raining but the temps were down. That made it so much better than the 100+ degree heat we've had lately. I got wet but no biggie.

The aluminum water pump housing that I got from Magnum HP is a really nice piece. It's got no name on it but the passages are just as big as the factory pieces.
The radiator did have some ick in it so it's going to be dunked tomorrow.
A new temp gauge is waiting for me at Speedtek.
I'll find a new cap and stat to use too.

I should have everything back together this weekend.

Keep us posted. I'm curious. Running some more temp #'s after you have the rad cleaned would be interesting?

Block your bypass in your watepump housing, fixed all my problems with flow.

Pull the thermostat housing and thermostat, look down and plug that hole. Now all the water from your heads is going into the rad not recycling back into your engine. There is still a small interal bypass near the bottom waterpump bolt that still allows some hot/cold mix.

The original WP housing had the bypass and worked well for years.
I'll try to run the housing with the bypass open and see how it works. The radiator should be done today. If so, I'll try to put it back together this weekend.

The radiator shop called back. A priest and rabbi working together coldn't bring this radiator back to life. Apparently, the core is over 75% blocked.

It was cooling, not great but still cooling, before I made the changes. I guess the new high flow pump stirred up more goo than the factory pump.

I'll pick up the replacement tomorrow. Apparently, it's an aluminum core with plastic tanks. I'm not too worried about that because plastic tanks can be sealed if they leak.

I put one in my wifes car a year ago with no problems. They cool real good. Don't look too OEM though.

What's this heater core you speak of? Is that the big black thingie under the dash that blocks access to wiring and hasn't been connected in years?

Since I did the work in the rain last night, I stuffed a garden hose in each side of the block and let it flow until the water came out clean. There was no coolant in there at the time so it was no biggie. I flushed it heads first then through the block.
I'll pull the drain plugs and do it again to be sure everything's out. Getting rained on is one thing but I didn't care to lay down in it and get that kind of bath.

I should have known, you being in Texas and all

Not much need for a heater here. We don't cool off at night like some desert areas do.

Naturally, when winter sets in I'll be looking for a heater.

Feets,


I had a feeling it might be the radiator, the signs were classic. Over the years I have had many people complain about cooling problems, and you could put your hand at the top and bottom of the radiator and feel a dramatic temperature difference. The radiator might look good, but once it was pulled and inspected it was a different story.

I also thought you might like to know about both of my sons. Levi and Ethan were accepted to Annapolis, and are doing quite well. Levi is in his third year, and is currently ranked 12th in his class with a major in Mechanical Engineering. He just finished up a four week summer course at Quantico called Leatherneck, a school for prospective Marine Corps officr.

Ethan just completed his plebe year, and also chose Mech E. He made it as a walk-on for their pistol team, and recently was top shooter for his team at the Junior Olympics. That is his gray SE in the photo, it was taken right before he shipped at for Pearl on a summer cruise. Both are working for a commission in the Marine Corps.

May God bless America,
Paladin

It looks like the boys are doing great! Maybe they'll grow up to be like their old man and strike fear in the hearts of bad guys everywhere.
The Navy and Marines simply have different bad guys.

Tell that young whipper snapper that I'll still take him on bowling pins at 200 yards with revolvers.