GregHamilton

I waited till summer alright, just not 2009, I waited till 2011. Now the truck has over 200K miles on it and going strong, just has a couple small problems that will need to work out like this one. I pulled my radiator and found about 5 lbs. of dirt, bugs, plant life, and other unidentifiable debris. I sprayed with my water hose from the backside while I used a soft nylon brush on the front side and picked stuff out with my fingers. I reinstalled it and installed my thermostat housing from a couple years ago that I knocked the guts out of so I could do a super flush where I leave the radiator drain open with a water hose going in the overflow tank. Ran it this way for about 30 minutes. Tomorrow plan to fill it up with 2 gallons of the yellow anti-freeze, replace my air filter, install my good thermostat along with new gasket and goop. I also cleaned out front and back of my air conditioning condenser. I sat in the car and turned on the AC high and it got nice and cold. Temperature never got above ~140 degrees since I did not have my real thermostat in, plus it was dark and only about 90 degrees out. Check out the pictures of before and after on the radiator.

ToooTall1

At 160K+ I'd change the radiator to a larger core size 1 1/4"vise stock 15/16", have to trim shroud a little for the bigger radiator to fit. (coolestradiator.com) has a good selection and price for the silverado. I'd replace the water pump, thermostat, tension pulleys, belts, hoses and fan clutch. Why because I had the same problem with my 2001 silverado at 210K. Once done it has never gotten past normal running with A/C on in 110 deg weather in stopped traffic. Spend a few bucks and you won't have to worry about cooling problems for along time.

Chuzz

Holy smokes! Looks like you'd been running over long haired cats for a while. LOL I'm guessing that was probably 90% of the problem you were having with the over heating. Fan clutches have never been something I liked either. Sometimes they slip and don't work the way they're supposed to. If it does it now, I'd recommend a large electric fan in place of the fan clutch. But I'm new to the board and am not a mechanic.

GregHamilton

ToooTall1 - thanks for the info. I've already put everything back together and I ran the A/C on max and let the truck idle for 45 minutes and it never got above ~195 dg. That's one test it definitely would have failed in the past. If it ever messes up again, I was just going to replace the radiator and fan at the same time and I wanted to go to the biggest size radiator I could, but I didn't know how to find out what the biggest one was that I could use. I'll save the link you sent in case I ever need it.