How hot is too hot ?

[Beesme]

I'm just curious . Whenever I a drive in hot weather up thru the mts and I'm on a good size grade I may approach 200 I then of course am driving by temp and never exceeding that . So is 200 safe for short bursts say couple min or should I always stay under 200 ? It is a 8v71 with 730 tranny bus always @ 180 just on 90+ day on steep incline will it slowly reach 200 .thanx for comments . I am going 200 miles today thru mts @ 90 reg today jus wanna make sure lol

[eagle19952]

Over temp shut down systems are the most important function you can have on a Detroit Diesel motor. Worthless if not functioning. Do you have one ?

[Jon]

Those temps were fairly normal when I had my 8V92. If climbing steep grades my temps began to creep higher than 200 it was an indication my radiator was needing attention. When everything was new, clean and working right my max hill climbing temp was 195 and my normal temps ran between 170 to 180.

[TomC]

I have misters on my radiator. With 180 thermostats, 175 is thermostats closed, 185 is thermostats fully open. Hence when the temp creeps past 185 it's not going to cool. I turn on my misters at 190, then the temp will creep up to 195 and then within 2 minutes come back down to 185-where I turn them off. Over 200, I pull over.
My misters were originally 15 misters from Home Depot-which worked OK. But work really well since I drilled out two of the misters to 1/16". The misters are plumbed into the water system with a electric solenoid valve. Good Luck, TomC

[Tikvah]

How do you know the difference in 5* or 10*
To take my eyes off the road and study the tiny change from 180* to 190* would kill me.

You must know something I don't...

[Iceni John]

How do you know the difference in 5* or 10*
To take my eyes off the road and study the tiny change from 180* to 190* would kill me.

You must know something I don't...

Ditch that gauge!   You should get a 270-degree sweep gauge that will give you three times the resolution of your present gauge.   Because temperature is so critical on our engines, you need to know exactly what is happening when it's happening.   I replaced my original Teleflex gauge similar to yours with a Speedhut full-sweep gauge with stepper motor, and it's easy to read and accurate.   I'm so pleased with it that I'm now replacing my transmission temperature gauge with another Speedhut, and I'll also replace my oil pressure gauge in the future with a Speedhut,   They're less expensive than other comparable brands, made in USA, and they work just fine.

John

[HB of CJ]

Excellent advice about the big sweep gages.  Electric probably better.  Mechanical where needed or limited.  Also consider installing the analog old fashioned gage soss one can sweep the dash, looking for needles "Out Of Place".  Other words, all the gage needles should point in the same direction; usually straight up.  Private light aircraft style.  One sweeps the dash or panel every 30 seconds.  A learned muscle memory.

[thomasinnv]

Or maybe even one of them new fandangled digital guages that you can set an alarm on with flashing light and dummy buzzer, you know one of them buzzers that say "hey you dummy, look at me! Your about to kill me!"

[Utahclaimjumper]

 Its called "panel scanning " in the trade.>>>Dan

[chessie4905]

This is why misters are very useful and inexpensive. You will always run into a hotter than normal days, steeper and or longer grades, gradual deterioration of radiator effective cooling over the years of use of coach, etc. Much cheaper than seized or broken liners and cracked heads. Also consider something like Nalcool or another water wetter.

[TomC]

On my truck, I have 17 gauges. And with a mechanical engine, you're scanning the dash often. With today's electronic engines, the electronic brain takes care of that for you.
New trucks now have 3 on board computers that have to talk to each other. Quite frankly, I don't know how trucks even run to go down the road they are so complicated now. Good Luck, TomC

[Beesme]

Well I never went over 190 and that was only momentarily ... That was going over Crawford notch , any one knowing white mtns knows that quite a climb . I was pushing a Vw westfalia up haha thanx for advice

[DoubleEagle]

Well I never went over 190 and that was only momentarily ... That was going over Crawford notch , any one knowing white mtns knows that quite a climb . I was pushing a Vw westfalia up haha thanx for advice

I once chased a Moose up the Crawford Notch, it had nowhere to go, cliff and guardrail on one side, and mountain side on the other. It went slower and slower, got exhausted and stopped with its tongue hanging out. I drove that road five days a week for five years between Littleton and Conway. You did alright holding it under 200.

[ol713]

    HI;;
      I have heard that 212F to 214F will do damage to an 8v71.  That's why
      when I have an automatic shutdown, I pull over and hit the overide
      button and keep it running until the motor cools down.

                                              Merle

[dvrasor]

when I was racing dirt cars I always clocked our gauges to be at 12 o'clock when
operating at "normal"

  Dave Rasor