I'm having an odd temp issue that is only coming up when its over 85 or 90 degrees outside. When driving at highway speeds (usually 55-65) I'm hitting an engine temp of about 210 degrees. It seems to stabilize there, but I also reliably slow down to no more than 55, so this could be helping. While driving up Kingston Peak on Saturday I ran at or below the 190 degrees my thermostat is supposed to open at for much of the run. Seems like the high altitude and low speeds would cause the truck to run warm as well, but it was fairly cool out. The truck ran like a top all day, other than some minor backfiring coming down the mountain when I lifted off the throttle. I'm assuming this is the altitude causing my truck to run rich. Coolant has been changed since I bought the truck and the thermostat, temp sending unit and radiator cap are newish as well. I'm taking the reading on the stock gauges, so that could be part of the problem. Just trying to figure out where to start diagnosing. I'm thinking it's either an old dirty radiator, a timing issue or a carb issue, but I'm not sure which is more likely. Any help with where to start is really appreciated.

Sounds pretty normal. EB radiators are small and just don't have a lot of extra cooling capacity when pushing it through the hot air that fast. 210 is not really hot and as long as it stabilizes you should be ok.

I'm interested in this as well. I live at higher elevation and my bronco runs great. However I went down to the front range and it ran horrible and really hot. I attribute it to improper jetting and running lean, but it could just be the old bronco radiator too.

Viper, thanks. Please keep telling me that the things I think are wrong with my truck are non-issues. I'll likely replace the radiator for a 3 core as my current one leaks a little, but nice to know I'm good for now. Still getting used to driving a truck older than me.

Austin, sounds like carb tuning to me, too, but I'm no expert.

I have a 3-core and it'll ONLY come up to temp when on the trail working hard. If I driving at over 25mph, my temp drops waaay down, like 150's or so. In the winter, my temp gauge never comes off the bottom end if I am driving around town. I have to put cardboard in front of the radiator to get any heat. I guess it's a good problem to have...

J.D.

Seems like that and an electric fan may be the way to go. I wouldn't mind picking up a little mileage if the fan isn't needed much of the time. I suspect a big part of my problem is that my radiator is probably all junked up from being 1000 years old.

J.D. - sounds like a 165 or below thermostat to me, a 185 is stock for our trucks I believe and if you bumped it up and it functioned normally you wouldn't need to run a piece of cardboard in the winter. Justin - my truck experiences similar temp #'s, 200-210, when running at hi-way speeds and usually runs 180-190 around town with a 185 thermostat. I have a stock radiator and new water pump, but I'm w/Viper and those temp are considered normal for a stock setup.

Kinder - I don't recall how many t-stats I changed, but I did try to remedy the situation to no avail. I think it's a 192 in there now. I also thought my temp gauge was wrong, but I verified it with a lazer.

With EFI, I think my computer gets stuck in the "warm-up" loop and costs me MPG's, but since most of my driving is on the trail, I don't really care about it too much. So it remains on the back burner.

But 3-cores work great!

Justin what rpm were you turning at highway speed vs what were you turning most of the time wheeling? Figure at 65 mine is turning over 3k rpm but wheeling I very rarely wind it that high 4 wheeling. I agree with Kinder and Viper about 210 not being that high and closer to normal. Mine runs between 170 and 210 range with most at about 190.

I've been thinking about a triple pass radiator for mine if I need to get a new one. I replaced the flex fan a few yrs ago with a fixed fan that moves a heck of a lot of air at low speeds. I haven't had an over heat issue since I messed around with fans and removed the auto cooling from the radiator to it's own cooler with integrated fan.

I turn between 2500 and 3000 rpm on the highway. Wheeling is between 1800 and 3000 rpm (usually the lower end of that). The weird thing I can't figure out is why the temp was so low on the trail. Must have been the colder temps is the only thing I can think of. Either that or the carb is set up for higher altitude, but I'm fairly sure that isn't the case based on how rich it seems to run.

195* here no matter the temp or speed. But the radiator in my 79 is as big as the hood on an EB. And the aux electric fan helps a lot too. that thing moves a ton of air. I only run that when wheeling.

I would agree with the call that 210 is normal. Maybe 200 for your non-EFI.

I too have weird heat issues and the Champion alum 3-row HD radiator didn't fix it. It helps, but not a total fix. I will keep watching for more insight...