I posted this on our local 4x4 forum, but figured it would be a relevant post here as well.
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So we loaded the full river rig up and headed to the upper Colorado last weekend. Kayaked from State Bridge to Catamount which was a total blast, including sending our first class 2 rapids.
First time driving such a heavily loaded setup over the passes, overall it did GREAT. handled and drove awesome and more than enough power to keep it around 65mph and a fair bit faster at times. Even heading back eastbound over Vail pass and up to the tunnel we were sitting about half throttle maintaining 65mph, EGT's about 1,100 and boosting 26psi sustained in fourth gear. I can't say enough about the Swamps tunes and the overall performance of my setup. Tons of power on reserve and EGT's are very well controlled.
I AM a little concerned about oil temps though. Lately driving around with just the camper on I was seeing 225ish regularly driving to work and back and had seen as high as 234 on my weekly drive over Berthoud pass to Winter Park, it would then take awhile for those temps to drop back down. So I ditched the 203deg. thermostat, installed a new motorcraft stock tstat and did a full flush and fill with new ELC. This helped a lot, regular driving in traffic temps rarely exceed 202, and over Berthoud it only hit 215, most notably temps immediately drop when I back out of the throttle and while coasting or at a light they hover around 196.
Westbound up 70 in the cool morning air with the AC off, I was really happy with the oil temp performance, but not so much heading eastbound Sunday afternoon. It was definitely warmer out and we had the AC cranking, topping out Vail Pass and the Eisenhower oil temps peaked at 243 and 246. This was only for a very short time period of time and it cooled back down rapidly after cresting the top. In retrospect I should have shut down the AC, and obviously I could backed down my speed and dropped it into a lower power tune.
Idiot gauge on the dash never budged, does anybody have an idea about what temp Ford finally decides you should be worried?
So i'm curious to hear your thoughts, how alarmed should a guy be about getting up over 240? any good suggestions to improve the cooling system a touch? I did have my licence plate in the grill, not much of a restriction to air flow, but I removed it yesterday regardless and will be curious to see if that makes a difference heading over Berthoud this afternoon. It also makes we wonder what kind of condition that radiator is in, sandwiched out of view between that IC and the condenser the thing could be half clogged with dirt and leaves and it would hard to ever know. I've seen that some people swap to a 180deg tstat, but I have serious reservations about that. The truck gets even more mountain time in the winter than summer, and I've had issues maintaining heat heading downhill.
