Last year, I had the engine pulled and partially torn down. The crank and pistons remained in place as they were all in good shape according to the mechanic. The water jacket was flushed out with a pressure washer and I had the original radiator rebuilt and installed a new thermostat. The main seals were replaced which the mechanic thought were a bit tight but also thought they would loosen up during operation. Last summer, I drove it to his shop on a road with a 45mph speed limit and while I don't think I was going that fast, the engine overheated on the short 5 or 6 minute drive and I lost a bit of coolant. My drives since then have been only on roads with 40mph limits or less and short drives at that, including my towns Memorial Day parade which of course was just creeping along while the temp remained below 180 degrees. Then a friend offered me a bunch of hickory logs for free but I would have to drive about 40 minutes on roads that had 40mph posted limits except through a couple of towns were the limit was 25. Everything was fine until I got to one town about 25 minutes away and during stop and go down the main drag I noticed the temp creeping up a bit. I got to the site where the logs were and left the truck running while my friend loaded the logs with his excavator and when I got back in the truck, I noticed the temp was up above 200 degrees. As I got back on the road, the temp began to drop as I drove along at 25mph or so. I made it home with the temp hovering somewhere between 180 and 200 degrees. The mechanic has suggested adding a fan shroud or an axillary electric fan but I think the it should maintain the correct temp with the factory equipment as the truck is essentially stock. I do know that I have some exhaust leak at the manifold gasket which needs to be corrected and wonder if that could be a source of the problem. Is it possible that the water pump doesn't pump enough water? We do plan to correct the manifold gasket issue first but does anybody have any thoughts on where the problem may lie? I appreciate any suggestions!
