1987 Ram 50 2.0 Running Hott. HELP?

[rickybobby2189]

As the title says Ive got a 87 Ram 50 that runs a little hott on me. On the gauge Im getting up towards the middle rather than the quarter mark where its supposed to run. I tried to remove the thermostat and its still getting too hott... If your going highway speeds it will stay cool enough to drive however during hard climbs or low speeds it will start getting too hott.. I feel it may be the clutch fan but im not sure....Is there any way of bench testing the fan to see if its working right? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[pennyman1]

Mid range is not too hot - that can be a product of the 195 thermostat vs a 180 stat. Near the top of the swing by the H is when it is running hot. As long as it comes back down, you will be fine - change the stat to a 180 if you are really worried, but don't run without a stat - it will actually run hotter that way. You may want to flush the radiator out to be sure it isn't full of sediment and crud.

[geezer101]

Hi and welcome to mightyram. These engines don't take kindly to overheating so if you haven't done it already, attempt to flush the cooling system and heater core out. The end result of not changing out coolant and flushing the cooling system can be holes eaten in the external coolant pipe, the inlet manifold (was pretty common on the G63B's) the heater core, the radiator and the head galleries. I always recommend replacing the mechanical clutch fan with an electric thermo fan. Not difficult to set up, can be done relatively cheaply and has a lot of positive effects (cools the engine in stationary traffic, takes a load off the water pump, improves throttle response, opens up access to the engine bay, can have an emergency bypass switch in case something goes wrong with a relay or the sender unit)