[Shop-talk] '02 Suburban engine cooling

[John Miller]

On 7/6/2012 6:59 PM, Ronnie Day wrote:
> The fan's working fine, as best I can tell. Like I said, the air temp was
> pushing 100 and I sat for an hour with the engine idling before the water
> temp went up. This is not unusual Texas weather this time of year. I'm
> concerned about towing a substanial load under similar conditions,
> wondering if I should take preventative precautions?

I suspect it's just that in still-air conditions the truck eventually 
'heat-soaked' all the air it was taking in through the radiator.

I've got an '03 2500 4x4 6-liter.  Held out for the '03 to get the 
adjustable pedals (my wife's almost a foot shorter than I am.)  3.73 
gears, which kill the tow rating with the 6.0 (12K with the 8.1/3.73 or 
6.0/4.10, 7500 with the 6.0/3.73.)

Pathetic headlights and the knockin'-and-bumpin' steering intermediate 
shaft that's apparently endemic to the GMT800 truck breed, but otherwise 
we like it quite a bit.  25K miles in the year-and-change I've owned it, 
various trips, towing, hauling 3000lb of brick in the back, etc.  I've 
never seen the temp gauge do anything exciting.  The AC failed at one 
point which proved to be a broken belt.

Never seen anything approaching 19mpg in it, 16 at 65mph is about the 
best it'll manage, but then it weighs a fair bit more than a 1500 and 
it's got some slightly oversized tires and an aftermarket "cold-air" 
intake and a non-stock MAF on it and as a result I won't bet he didn't 
diddle the ECM calibration too.

There was a fix for the headlights: