No heat through vents, truck over heating, need help fast

[denverkid1296]

Hey all, my daily driver has been overheating within 10 minutes of starting, and i normally drive an hour to work and an hour home everyday, and im not sure where to look, it started once i jumped the forklift at my job (stupid i know). I know my fan clutch is out so ill be replacing that tonight but what else should i look at?

[royster]

I suggest looking at the thermostat. Get it up to running temperature with the radiator cap off, and see if it's circulating. If not, it's the water pump or the thermostat.

I bet Geezer has two cents to add :)

[geezer101]

LOL Roy :lmao:. +1 with the Roysters' suggestions. Flush out the engine and heater core (even disconnect the heater hoses and flush it with a pressure cleaner separately from the heater recirculation pipe as the heater cores can accumulate a lot of junk from the block). And now my regular suggestion - replace the big ass clutch fan with an electric thermo fan. It will cool the engine when it needs it, take a load off the water pump bearings, de-govern the engine and free up some throttle response and open up access to the front of the engine bay. It can be done on the cheap and isn't a task beyond the average guy working on their own ride.

[denverkid1296]

Thank you guys for the suggestions, i will work on it today and post what i find! Geezer what is a good electric thermo fan to look into?

[geezer101]

Get the biggest fan you can physically fit to either face of the radiator (if you don't have A/C I would recommend front mounting it - it looks a lot tidier from inside the engine bay and really opens up some space to swing a wrench or 2). It won't matter what brand you use but try to get one with a really good CFM rating - more flow = more efficient, and a fan that can push and pull air to save you confusion. You'll need the fan, a hose joiner/coupler kit so you can fit the sender switch into the bottom radiator hose, the sender switch and a relay kit. Depending on the fan you can get away with spending as little as $50 with some hunting on ebay.