A little hot

Papa_TJ

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Tega Cay, SC
Just got back from a week at the beach. Pulled my 2500 pound when fully loaded Aliner 300 miles from my house to Cape Lookout national seashore. It’s a really cool beach trip where you have to take your vehicle on a ferry and primitive camp on the beach making sure that you’re not in the way high tide. This is my fourth trip to the island but first trip with this big of a trailer.

I arrived last Tuesday checked in and was on my way out to the beach. I got about a mile south of the Ferri Landing point and decided I was gonna turn around and go back to a spot that I had seen. I didn’t read the sand correctly and on top of that I left a little too much air pressure in the tires and those two things together. I sync my tires in the sand. Not that big of a deal. I had a shovel interaction boards and it was slow going. I managed to dig, place traction boards and move about 6 to 7 feet, and repeat. Did this about seven times and fortunately a guy showed up with a belt JK and asked me if I wanted a pull. What was I to say no I wanna keep digging sand.

In any case I realized during this whole scenario that I may not have a big enough radiator or big enough fan on my 5.3 swapped TJ. I kept getting temps up to 220 and at one point even 225 had to let it idle with the fan just blowing more than that just running on the sand for a few miles pull that trailer. It was getting up there in the 218 to 220 range.

For anyone who hasn’t done this island trip and if you’re close enough or even if you’re far, you don’t need a trailer to do it you can go out there with a tent or even rent a cabin either way, I suggest you bring some method to cool yourself down like a portable generator and a portable air conditioner. Not only that but it can tend to get a little bit buggy so I enjoy the windy times out there it keeps the bugs down and this week was no exception for the first three days. It was nice and windy.

In any case what this post is about is to ask if anybody has done a v8 swap and his running a little hot what did you do whose radiator did Jyou buy whose fans did you buy?

Other than that, hope everybody’s having a wonderful jeep day.
 
I suggest you bring some method to cool yourself down like a portable generator and a portable air conditioner.
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Jeep beer.webp
 
Agreed, I wouldn't pull 2500 lb with a TJ either. Regardless, maybe get in touch with novak for a rad/fan system? Expensive, but that's a well designed solution that usually works.

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If the stock radiator blows up on my LS swapped xj I'm doing the novak rad and fan kit
 
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yep trailer has brakes, and yep it is a little heavy but damn it’ rolls good, no sway at all. Jeep frame is trussed between rear spring purches and bumper mounts. Trailer brakes are set heavy so slightest touch they are right there.
 
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yep trailer has brakes, and yep it is a little heavy but damn it’ rolls good, no sway at all. Jeep frame is trussed between rear spring purches and bumper mounts. Trailer brakes are set heavy so slightest touch they are right there.

The frame is plenty strong, it's more the short wheelbase that could become a problem. But, if it's been stable then I wouldn't worry
 
For as hard as it was working in that scenario I don't think 220-225 is really that bad. What were the highway temps? Lots of modern vehicles will hit 225 and more on long grades etc. As long as it comes back down I personally don't think it's a problem. Assuming you have an automatic, do you have an auxiliary transmission cooler?
 
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For as hard as it was working in that scenario I don't think 220-225 is really that bad. What were the highway temps? Lots of modern vehicles will hit 225 and more on long grades etc. As long as it comes back down I personally don't think it's a problem. Assuming you have an automatic, do you have an auxiliary transmission cooler?

Yep, it’s got a 4L 60 E transmission and I have one of those super coolers fairly large sits in front of the AC condenser. Highway temps typically ran anywhere from 205 to 220 getting up to 223 224 on long uphill grades. I programmed into my ECU that when the temperature exceeds 220 the air conditioner compressor will drop off. I think more of the problem isn’t the uphill grades it’s the stoplight. Even though the fan is running on, the radiator, tends to get a little warm at stoplight when the air conditioner is running. This is new as I just installed the air conditioner at the end of last summer and haven’t really had a chance to stretch the legs on it now I’m starting to get to know it a little bit and I’m finding that this is why I’m thinking maybe larger radiator or maybe even higher output fan or a two stage fan. It’s possible if I could get away with a higher output fan I might not need a new radiator. Here’s an image of the radiator and overflow when I was building out the swamp.
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Maybe cut back more on the AC use when towing if those temps bother you. When I had a 6.0 LS in my work van I ended up installing two Permacool 15" pusher fans on the front of the radiator so I could run my AC in city traffic, before I did that the temp would get pretty high and the AC would not stay as cold when stopped. Unfortunately no room on a TJ for even a single pusher.
 
Install a water sprayer on the front of the radiator. Ran one for years on a certain GMC truck, it would pull the temps back down right quick!

This is an interesting idea. How much water did you go through? Like for a day of driving in the heat? I think I have parts to make this. A few mister nozzles. A pump sprayer and a 12v valve should do it. Wow cheap solution.
 
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This is an interesting idea. How much water did you go through? Like for a day of driving in the heat? I think I have parts to make this. A few mister nozzles. A pump sprayer and a 12v valve should do it. Wow cheap solution.

Its a solution as old as the hills. It originally pumped out of a 20 gal tank in the cab over camper, but when the camper went away and we pulled a 29' fifth wheel with that truck, I was put in charge of making it work again. I put a 5 gallon tank on one of the side steps with a 12 v pump. The existing copper flex over the front of the radiator that my dad had installed years before simply had a number of tiny holes drilled in it - I'd think misters would work a bit better, but I don't know. I didn't even use a valve, although I'd recommend one, if you parked pointed down hill, the water would siphon out.

Anyway, it isn't something you can run all day - just gets you over steep and hot passes. It would use about 1/2 of the 5 gallons to get us over Pacheco pass, which isn't all that high (1,368ft), but steep and hot. "Total Loss Cooling."
 
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Install a water sprayer on the front of the radiator. Ran one for years on a certain GMC truck, it would pull the temps back down right quick!

I've done this before on industrial refrigeration condensers , It flat out works and would drop the high side head pressure significantly .
 
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I can't imagine what a water sprayer would do in a dusty environment.

I could see you clogging a radiator quickly.

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-Mac
 
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