1/2 Ton trucks and cooling sytem performance

S

skrypj

Joined
Jan 19, 2012
Messages
458
Location
UT
Just curious what experience people have had with their half-tons in terms of cooling system performance?

My backstory is that I have a 2014 F150 Ecoboost with the max-tow package. I tow a 5500 lb travel trailer. While the engine has power for days, I constantly struggle with cooling issues. I mainly towing in UT, WY, ID, MT and NV so I am usually at high elevation, in high temperatures, and sometimes headwinds. Its not weird to be at 90F-95F at 7000' fighting some kind of wind. My truck will hit 240+ coolant temps pretty quickly on climbs in these conditions and I end up having to back out. There was even one day where it was 98F out and I was fighting a 30 mph headwind and had to drop down to 50-55mph to keep coolant temps below 230F on flat ground.

I have upgraded the intercooler, installed a mishimoto radiator, a standalone oil cooler, larger transmission cooler and run 40% coolant/60% di water with Kool-it and still struggle with temps.

I am curious what others have seen in similar conditions with other trucks like the Tundra, 6.2L Chevy, Hemi Ram, Ford 5.0 etc. I would love to hear about the 5.6L Titan XD as well, but don't see many so not sure how much experience there is out there. I am wondering if this is an issue unique to the Ecoboost or just a half ton issue in general.

My trailer is not big. 24' hitch to bumper and weighs less than the truck does. My empty truck is 6140 lbs whereas my trailer has a GVWR of 5500. It's the aerodynamic drag that gets me.

F150.jpg
 
Last edited:
You sure you don’t have any compression getting into the cooling system on those long pulls? Is the fan operating properly? Something isn’t right that truck should be able to handle it no problem with out those crazy coolant temps.

another thing are you sure your coolant temps readings are accurate ?
 
Last edited:
I'll just say that one of my friends owns a 2018 F-150 3.5 ecoboost without the max tow pkg. He tows a similar sized trailer and has experienced the same issues during a long uphill pull. But in flat-land conditions, his has been fine.
 
mattd said:
You sure you don’t have any compression getting into the cooling system on those long pulls? Is the fan operating properly? Something isn’t right that truck should be able to handle it no problem with out those crazy coolant temps.

another thing are you sure your coolant temps readings are accurate ?
Click to expand...
This is a common issue amongst Ecoobost F150's on the forums, particularly trucks that live/tow in the rockies. Its not an issue with just my truck. We have a 66 page thread on F150Ecoboost.net about it.

And its not just 1st gen Ecoboosts either. Anyone from 2011-2020 has issues if they are towing in harsh enough conditions.
 
2018 6.2 Silverado here. changed the coolant thermostat from the stock 206 to 196 crammo t-stat. Also bypassed the 186 degree trans t-stat and dropped 35 degrees from fluid temp there. Pulled a 12000 lb toy hauler cross country 5k miles with no sweat. The GM ECU has the fans idle at anything below 186 and has moveable louvers in front of the radioator that I also remove partially :)

Not an ecoboost xpert but my guess is that you have a small engine running a lot of boost and associated compressor heat and are you trying to do 90mph also? Has anyone looked into a tuning that ensures the fuel mixture is plenty rich and so runs cooler? try a bypass switch on the cooling fans see if it makes a difference on long pulls?
 
Kawiguy454 said:
2018 6.2 Silverado here. changed the coolant thermostat from the stock 206 to 196 crammo t-stat. Also bypassed the 186 degree trans t-stat and dropped 35 degrees from fluid temp there. Pulled a 12000 lb toy hauler cross country 5k miles with no sweat. The GM ECU has the fans idle at anything below 186 and has moveable louvers in front of the radioator that I also remove partially :)

Not an ecoboost xpert but my guess is that you have a small engine running a lot of boost and associated compressor heat and are you trying to do 90mph also? Has anyone looked into a tuning that ensures the fuel mixture is plenty rich and so runs cooler? try a bypass switch on the cooling fans see if it makes a difference on long pulls?
Click to expand...

I tow at 70mph usually. Freeway speeds are 75-80mph and the 18 wheelers are usually doing 70-75mph, so going much slower than 65 becomes a little scary.

On hills I am backing out to 60 or 55mph depending on coolant temps.
 
If the forum consensus is that elevated temps are normal for that configuration id say nothing wrong. We do know that the engineers designed more recent vehicles to run at much higher temps than they used to. I would deferr to more stout oil if it was mine. with that sort of heat a 20w would be thinner than water

I was just wisecracking about doing 90mph ...but i saw a lot of nutjobs with huge trailers doing exactly that blaSTING by me last trip.
 
LenZee said:
Looks like you are running taller than stock tires, taller and wide tires combined with towing at extremes of altitude/heat/headwind/aerodynamics is probably the cause of high coolant temps.
Click to expand...
Those were put on in January and I have only towed once with them. Tires have been stock the 5 years before that.

I am not really looking for help with my truck. I am asking about other trucks.
 
I think you are asking too much of the truck. You are running close to the max frontal area on that trailer, with a cap and I would guess some camping gear in the bed and several people you are close the the trucks gvwr. Trying to go 70 into a 30 mph head wind is the same as going 100 as far as the truck is concerned and then throw in high elevation and a climb. You either need to slow down or get a bigger truck.
 
dareo said:
Well if you are loading an ecoboost down, your getting boost. Boost is hot, higher pressure, ect. All things being equal i would assume the N/A V8 would run cooler in the same load.
Click to expand...
Would it? Similar power required, similar efficiency, similar waste heat generated, going into a similar radiator.

I am not sure about intake air temperature, I know there is an inter cooler but I don’t know the temp difference between NA and EB here, if NA would have cooler inlet temperature.

didn’t Ford recommend the 5.0 for routine towing? maybe you are right, and the EB does kick out more heat in this case.
 
You also have the bottleneck of a turbine to pass through pushing heat out of the cylinder. My Alltrack warms up so dang fast due to the design of cylinder head focusing all exhaust into the relatively small turbo.
 
Kawiguy454 said:
If the forum consensus is that elevated temps are normal for that configuration id say nothing wrong. We do know that the engineers designed more recent vehicles to run at much higher temps than they used to. I would deferr to more stout oil if it was mine. with that sort of heat a 20w would be thinner than water

I was just wisecracking about doing 90mph ...but i saw a lot of nutjobs with huge trailers doing exactly that blaSTING by me last trip.
Click to expand...

No there is nothing "wrong". Its normal. I am wondering if it is normal for other 1/2 tons though. I mean they clearly don't have the cooling system that the HD trucks have. The radiators are tiny by comparison.

When you towed your toy hauler, what kinda ambient temps were you seeing in Rockies and what kinda of coolant temps. Where I run into issues is on the big climbs where I am on a 7% grade for 3-4 miles straight in higher temps.

Oh and people do put switches on the cooling fans but the electric fans are not doing anything at freeway speeds anyways.
 
supton said:
Would it? Similar power required, similar efficiency, similar waste heat generated, going into a similar radiator.

I am not sure about intake air temperature, I know there is an inter cooler but I don’t know the temp difference between NA and EB here, if NA would have cooler inlet temperature.

didn’t Ford recommend the 5.0 for routine towing? maybe you are right, and the EB does kick out more heat in this case.
Click to expand...

I have an upgraded intercooler and my IAT's at the manifold are generally 15-20F above ambient during a climb. Stock intercooler was terrible and saw IAT's around 190 once or twice.
 
My truck is similar to yours, but is a 2011 with a 6.2 and a short box. I tow an 18' ~3500lb single-axle travel trailer, and recently towed a 17' tandem-axle v-nose cargo trailer about 1000km. I don't generally tow at the elevations you do, but some as high as about 4000'. I have yet to notice my trans temp creep much above 201°F. I do generally feel for the speed the truck wants to settle into, and that's usually around 62-65mph, but that's more for reasons of fuel economy and distrust toward trailer tires than it is about cooling.
 
Chris142 said:
Is the cooling fan mechanical or electronic?
Click to expand...
Electric 🤯

i think thats kinda the root of the issue. Because they designed the radiator to be rectangular to accommodate two fans side by side, they gave up a lot of radiator height. Basically the core is a 2:1 width to height.

on any trucks with mechanical fans they have a basically square radiator core and are much larger. Even my Lexus GX has a 25% larger core than my F150

F9DCA471-B131-44A1-B0ED-42A6D63FDF6A.jpeg

The tundra has a 36% larger frontal area on its core.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

R
coolant to water ratio for 5.9 cummins
2
Replies
37
Views
4K
ruSSrt
J
Gen 1 Ecoboost 3.5 Potential Oil Issue While Towing
2
Replies
23
Views
3K
jghall00
W
Duramax LML possible head gasket and piston issues
2
Replies
25
Views
5K
ElectroMechanoMan
SwampSurvivor
My truck overheated and blew off the lower hose? Wonder what damage there was.
2
Replies
25
Views
2K
SwampSurvivor
redhat
Traded in two vehicles, and bought a new truck
2
Replies
38
Views
4K
spasm3
Back
Top