Coolant temps towing with 6.0 van

DZL JIM · Jun 16, 2016

Thought I'd post here for upgrade suggestions.

Our shop van is getting very hot while towing. Actually, it gets very hot just driving around, too. I see 215° routinely just city driving. If it's 65° or so outside it's much lower. Towing a 6k trailer isn't much different.
The trans hovers at 200° too, but the built trans builder said to expect it to run hotter. I still would like to upgrade that cooler if there's room.

Any thoughts here?
Bad t-stat? When it's 65° outside temps are no concern, they usually stay right around 195. City driving they go up but quickly drop when you get moving.
Does anyone offer an upgraded t-stat to lower the temp below the standard 195°?
Aftermarket fan controller to get the fan to come on sooner to keep temps down?
The van isn't driven in the winter, just summer time so I have no concern for cold weather anything.
Then again I think the exposed frontal area of the vans just don't permit easy cooling.

Thanks for any tips.

webb06 · Jun 16, 2016

Had a6.0 truck earlier this week that had a thermostat sticking closed. You could see on the shaft where the spring is it had an indention allowing the spring to hang up and not open. Coolant temp reached 220 on the highway with 90 ambient temps.

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fordfreak4life · Jun 16, 2016

I would put your tstat in a pan of water and heat the water with a candy thermometer in it and see where it starts opening or if it opens, also check your waterpump, plastic impeller can come loose from the shaft and not move fluid

DEEZUZ · Jun 16, 2016

fordfreak4life said:
I would put your tstat in a pan of water and heat the water with a candy thermometer in it and see where it starts opening or if it opens, also check your waterpump, plastic impeller can come loose from the shaft and not move fluid

This was proven here a long time ago that boiling a tstat does not replicate the condition as of being in a engine.

E series do tend to run 15-20 degrees hotter than F series. I've let Es go that were seeing the Temps described even with new radiators and t stats. I believe it's almost normal ad long as fan is working

fordfreak4life · Jun 16, 2016

CTC DEEZUL said:
This was proven here a long time ago that boiling a tstat does not replicate the condition as of being in a engine.

E series do tend to run 15-20 degrees hotter than F series. I've let Es go that were seeing the Temps described even with new radiators and t stats. I believe it's almost normal ad long as fan is working

it will atleast tell you if its still functioning. I had one that would open, but only an 1/8" and stop.

IHPowerstroke7.3 · Jun 16, 2016

i believe the radiator is smaller in size on the e series compared to the f series. Less surface area and less airflow through the radiator due to body design don't help. I agree, never really tried while towing, but the vans do run hotter than the f series when comparing data.
215* isn't horrible but I'd keep it simple and check the easy things. Do the radiator/condensor/intercooler have good flow through them or are they dirty with dirt and debris? Make sure the fan clutch is working properly. If the PCM thinks it's too hot, the fan should be coming on to get more air flow. If the fan isn't being commanded on I wouldn't be too worried about it. As far as trans temp goes, I believe they have a trans cooler in the rad too. So if ambient temps are high and coolant temps are high then trans temps will be too. 100 degrees over ambient is pretty normal.

DEEZUZ · Jun 17, 2016

Yes, the radiator is the same width as the cheapo parts store ones for the F series. How people don't pay attention to that when their replacing their double the sized factory one I don't know...

DZL JIM · Jun 17, 2016

Anybody know of a lower temp t-stat available for the 6.0?

Luke@MillerPerformance · Jun 17, 2016

DZL JIM said:
Anybody know of a lower temp t-stat available for the 6.0?

Mishimoto has them. Another option would be a custom tune with the fan clutch on temps set lower.

DEEZUZ · Jun 17, 2016

That fan would be running alot. No experience with non factory t Stats. I'm usually partial to engines running hotter.

Another option could be a set or a single electronic pusher fan.

Derek@Vision Diesel · Jun 17, 2016

I don't believe going to a cooler T-stat would be the answer. The factory one works awesome. If you are having issues with coolant temps something is wrong.

My 07 will tow 18,000lbs in 105* weather through semi mountainous terrain and never break 225*. Temperatures come up a little bit and instantly things cool off, it comes back up and fan comes on yet again. City driving it is VERY difficult to get it above 195*.

I would first fix your issue before masking it with lower temperature thermostats.

IHPowerstroke7.3 · Jun 17, 2016

I had an 07 e450 cube van in today for some hard start issues. Thought of this and went for a road test to check coolant and oil temps to give you some comparison.
I have a screen shot of IDS but can't figure out how to post it from my phone. Anyway ambient temps were about 75-80 degrees farenheit, IAT was 84*F, ECT was 205*F and EOT was 210*F. This was after warming it up and driving about 5 miles at 50 mph mostly flat ground, empty box no trailer. I saw ECT temps up to 210 as well. This past winter the oil cooler, EGR cooler and thermostat were replaced along with a coolant flush.

DZL JIM · Jun 20, 2016

Derek@Vision Diesel said:
I don't believe going to a cooler T-stat would be the answer. The factory one works awesome. If you are having issues with coolant temps something is wrong.

My 07 will tow 18,000lbs in 105* weather through semi mountainous terrain and never break 225*. Temperatures come up a little bit and instantly things cool off, it comes back up and fan comes on yet again. City driving it is VERY difficult to get it above 195*.

I would first fix your issue before masking it with lower temperature thermostats.

When ambient is 70° everything is fine. You can see when stat opens, etc. I really don't think anything is "wrong", t-stat is newer, radiator is clean and in great shape, fan works when commanded on, etc. Other than having little frontal area, small intercooler, small radiator, small trans cooler, and high performance mods add up to not a very good tow vehicle. This is a high 12 second 4x4 van. 190/100% injectors and Stage-3 turbo. I know a smaller turbo would spool up faster and if EGT's stayed lower everything else would be lower, too.

Once on flat ground temps come down, but under a load it gets hot. Saturday I saw 221° coolant temps towing a light box trailer, ambient was 85 - 90 ish.

I asked the tuner a while ago about lowering the fan-on point, he has been very difficult to get anything from the past few months. I'll keep hounding him.

I am looking for info on upgrades to help my combo run cooler, but I think I have a direction.

Thanks for all the input.

IHPowerstroke7.3 · Jun 21, 2016

My apologies, didn't realize your van had a bunch of work done to it.

DEEZUZ · Jun 23, 2016

212/220 here with a e series ambulance loaded. No worries.

DZL JIM · Jun 27, 2016

Ok, thanks.

DZL JIM · Aug 4, 2016

Update:
I bought a Bulletproof Diesel fan clutch adapter thingy and installed an OBS fan clutch.
Holy Cow...
Big difference, I highly recommend it for any van. It's still 90° days here and the highest I see is 190° and it actually cools down to 186 - 188 in the city instead of climbing to 215.

jeremiahmercier · Aug 4, 2016

Wow, major difference. This sounds like a great thing for me even with the truck, hope it makes as big a difference, I'd love that towing

06-6.0l, CCLB 4X4, studded, reworked heads, egr gone, cab reroute, blue spring mod, 6.4 banjos, updated dummy plugs, stand pipe, and stc fitting; New oil cooler, New ipr, New icp, atlas 40 FICM, powermax turbo, and Geerhead tunes, 325/65R18