03 powerstroke overheats only when towing
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06-06-2010, 10:28 AM
#14
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Location: Harrison, Oh/Lake Cumberland, Ky
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Put a scanner on it and check your oil temp versus coolant temp. If it's greater than a 15 degree spread, you need a new oil cooler.
If anyone has ever added any regular antifreeze to it, it would have gelled up the cooler and caused flow issues.
- after re-reading - when mine started to overheat when towing, I heard the fan kicking on excessively, which led me to find out why it was so hot and it was the oil cooler. If you aren't hearing the fan, I would look in to why that isn't kicking on. I believe the tool my guy used to trouble shoot mine could tell the fan to kick on to see if it was working at the right temp settings.
If anyone has ever added any regular antifreeze to it, it would have gelled up the cooler and caused flow issues.
- after re-reading - when mine started to overheat when towing, I heard the fan kicking on excessively, which led me to find out why it was so hot and it was the oil cooler. If you aren't hearing the fan, I would look in to why that isn't kicking on. I believe the tool my guy used to trouble shoot mine could tell the fan to kick on to see if it was working at the right temp settings.
Last edited by ImaPoser; 06-06-2010 at 10:33 AM.
06-09-2010, 03:52 PM
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Today i replaced the clutch fan with another new one from ford, still dont hear a roar of anykind, the fan is drawing air through the ac condenser and radiator i tested it with a smoke machine and it draws it through fron 1' out in front of the grill at all points of the condenser. I did notice that the top rad hose is pretty hot but the bottom one is luke warm could this be a flow problem with the radiator or a tstat not opening all the way restricting the flow hence not letting the rag get hot enough to engage the clutch fan.
06-11-2010, 01:18 PM
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Today i replaced the clutch fan with another new one from ford, still dont hear a roar of anykind, the fan is drawing air through the ac condenser and radiator i tested it with a smoke machine and it draws it through fron 1' out in front of the grill at all points of the condenser. I did notice that the top rad hose is pretty hot but the bottom one is luke warm could this be a flow problem with the radiator or a tstat not opening all the way restricting the flow hence not letting the rag get hot enough to engage the clutch fan.
That's why I suggest a flush. If the t-stat is not opening all the way or radiator is plugged that would explain everything. A flush should be simple.
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06-11-2010, 02:48 PM
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06-17-2010, 08:11 AM
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I had a different truck do this and I did everything that has been mentioned and I found it to be the tensioner on the belt was bad. Didn't notice it when it wasn't towing, once hooked up she would get hot. I changed the clutch on the fan, flushed, when I went to change the water pump I noticed the tensioner would stay way ever I would put it.
