horsewhispur

I have a 1995 chev 2500 van high top with 350 v8,at,ac and has 102,000 miles.Last month it suddenly ran hot while pulling a stock 4 horse trailer with 1 horse in it. I was delivering a horse after it was sold.I heard a loud bang,sounded like a tire blew,no smoking or steaming from under hood at this point.I pulled over,with van running and quickly checked tires,no problems there.When i got back in van i noticed the temperature gauge was almost in red,of course i cut off the engine and called the person i was delivering horse to.Fortunantely for me he was a bit of a mechanic,unlike me,and saw right off that the top radiator hose split,and we got 1 at nearby at autozone and he replaced it.After that i was following him to his house, and it started to get close to red again,so we stopped and added coolant and water.After it cooled we contineued to his house which was only about 40 minutes from where i 1st broke down.When we got to his house he thought it best to replace thermostate.It then still ran a little warmer than usual so i left the trailer at his house and drove 1 1/2 hrs back home and toke van to local chevy dealer next morning.They replaced the manifold gasket,pcv valve,a 13.00 element, i dont remember what kind,iam looking at the dealer invoice now.Total was 375.59,and i got it back 2 days later and it still ran hot before i got home with no trailer,so i carried it back to them and they had a private company come look at it and were told it was fan.I paid another 287.00 for the clutch fan and iam still having same problem.Iam going to carry it back to chevy dealer i quess but they dont seem to no whats wrong with it.When it 1st broke down a neighbor of the guy i sold horse to who is a certified mechanic said it was probably head gasket,or could be manifold gasket,but he thought head gasket and it didnt crack the block as far as he could tell, because theres no water in oil and a couple other things he said that i cant recall now.All i can do now is drive it without trailer and its ok,doesnt run hot, gauge sits just a hair over halfway mark,but if i tow the trailer with just 8 bags of trash to the dump 5 miles away, like yesterday when i get home, the temperature gauge is in the red and i can hear water boiling.I no its going to run a little warmer in summer,especially when its 90 degrees outside but i have had this van 3 years and never had this running hot problem when pulling trailer in summer before,can anyone give me some suggestions,please? Thank you,Paul horsewhispur@hotmail.com

kcb37

If it is your head gasket it could coolant could mix with the oil, or vise versa, so check both and make sure they are both clean and not mixed. Does it smoke at all or run rough? Blue smoke is oil, Black is fuel, and white is coolant. You may want to have your cooling system flushed, if your radiator is getting clogged it could be cutting down flow. Seems kinda strange to do it all at once though. Unless it built up to much pressure and blew out when the hose did, or sucked something in.
I don't think it would be a water pump. I haven't heard of one slowly going out or only partially working.
Good Luck.

horsewhispur

Hi kcb37,Thanks 4 reply.No its not any oil in water or water in oil,and there is no somke of any kind when cold or when it starts running hot, coming out of exaust.I also like you, thought all this was very coincidentle,first we saw the hose was blown,so we replaced,still ran hot and my friend put thermostat in it,and his neighbor the certified mechanic said it was probably the head gasket,although he did say that same night that there was no oil and water mixed so it could be manifold gasket.At anyrate the dealer said nothing was wrong with the head and it was maniflod so we replaced it and still ran hot, so dealer on 2nd visit replaced the fan clutch and that stills not doing it.When i called dealer back today he told me to drive it and cut the heater on when it started running hot and let him no what happens,its suppose to open the thermostat, if thats it,but we already replaced with a new and heavy duty one from autozone,i even paid extra 4 or 5.00 bucks for heavy duty when i got it,so i dont think thats it but ill try tomorrow.What did catch my eye about what you said "You may want to have your cooling system flushed, if your radiator is getting clogged it could be cutting down flow. Seems kinda strange to do it all at once though. Unless it built up to much pressure and blew out when the hose did, or sucked something in." What do you mean by the last part WHAT BLEW OUT.Do you mean if it was clogged the clog maybe blew out,or something else,because like i said in first posting i heard a loud pop or noise on right side that sounded like in tailpipe exaust area,thats why i thought it may have been a tire. It happened very quickly but i think i saw fire come out of exaust pipe when i heard that noise. Again thanks and i look forward to reading your reply and ill make sure dealer checked radiator,iam hopeful they did.

kcb37

When I said blow out I meant the radiator hose. I'm thinking but it may be possible that something stopped your coolant flow alltogether, causing to much pressure and blowing the hose, and maybe it disloged enough to keep partial flow. Sounds kinda like a far reach but wouldn't hurt to check. Have you ever replaced the hoses? It could be that it was old and just couldn't hold pressure of a partial flow.
That makes me curious now because I either didn't read completely or just misunderstood. I didn't know it poped at the back.
I wouldn't think it would be the thermostat if you replaced it. I have a 96 1/2 ton silverado, 350 I have to drive it to be sure but my temp gauge stays right around the bottom 1/4. I think a little above warm. I would guess maybe a backfire. Did you tell the dealership that part? (about the fire)
If I think of anything else I will let you know.
And I appreciate the compliment.

Nomad76lj

try having your cooling system presure tested. that may show a leak that you cant see. also by turning your heater on just sucks the extra heat from the motor and gives it another place to blow off the extra heat.

horsewhispur

I just got back from feed store were i had to take horse trailer to haul my feed,not much weight but only runs past the halfway mark on gauge when i pull horse trailer,as a matter of a fact it runs just over the 3/4 mark which is almost in red.Anyway the dealer yesterday told me to try and cut heater on today and see if that would bring down the temperature,well it did.It was at 3/4 mark, so i turned a/c off heat on,opened windows and it went down right away to halfway(gauge starts at 100 and goes to 260,which is in red).I didnt think that would do anything as the 1st thing we did was put thermostate in. I also thought i remembered my gauge being like between 1/4 and 1/2 before this all started,but i cant swear to it.Gauge sits at about halfway with no trailer,and of course runs hot(over 3/4 just before red) with trailer.i quess ill call dealer now and schedule another appointment for thermostat be put in along with replacing lower raditor hose,since the top busted and i dont no how old bottum one is.They did a pressure test the 2nd time i brought it in and said it had no leaks,thats when they called in a company called tech express,i think they called it,to see what they thought and they recommended replacing the fan clutch.Any way thanks for all the help and suggestions ALL,i really appreciate it.If anyone else has suggestions please let me no,i still dont beleive its going to be this simple. Thanks,Paul