OVERHEATING 2003 Gulf Stream Diesel

[Gene]

I have a 2003 Gulf Stream Friendship With Cat3126e Diesel. I have always experienced Overheating on very long upgrades. Have flushed & cleaned the system. Replaced water pump belt, thermostats, & cleaned exterior of radiator. While on a long upgrade,& while it is running hot I can cool it down by turning on the heater. That works until that additional coolant becomes hot. .

On my last visit to the repair shop for an unrelated issue I asked them to check the water pump belt again. They said they tightened it & charged me About $60. for doing so but I'm not convinced. The belt is extremely difficult to access as it is behind the harmonic balancer. I have driven approximately 2200 mi. since they supposedly checked it. When I just now personally inspected the belt it appears to have a small amount of deflection, maybe 1/2"-3/4". The sides of the belt also seam to be glazed, like maybe it was slipping.

It is hard for me to believe that after all of this time & 75K miles that my issue could be just a slipping belt. Could belt be that sensitive?

I really would like to here from some one with a similar problem. Today I am beginning my return trip from AZ to PA & have waited too long to act on this issue.
Gene Malone

[03heritagerider]

Gene,

We have the exact same problem with our '03 Friendship. We had it checked and they can't find anything wrong.

Frankly, I don't think it is actually overheating. I've actually had the thing read hot when leaving my steep driveway before it even gets warm.

It seems to me to be the angle of the grade. I think this because as soon as you crest a hill or stop, the gauge returns to normal temp within seconds. If the coolant was hot enough to set off the warning buzzer and flash the check engine light, then I doubt it would cool off into the normal range within 5 seconds.

With my limited expertise, I'm thinking it is some kind of sensor that gets set off at a tilt.

Curious to hear from others on this issue as well.

[Gene]

I'm also not convinced that it actually is too hot as I have never lost any coolant, & the gage returns to normal way too quickly. But there is still an issue when all of the warning lights flash &the buzzers go off.

[11B]

Check to see how long your slobber tube is and that it's not spraying oil up on the inside of your raidiator. I had to put an extension on mine because of this exact reason and hand to have the radiator washed from the front to the back to clean it by my freightliner dealer. It solved the problem.

[03heritagerider]

Slobber Tube???????????? :?

[11B]

Kind of figured that would throw you. Most desils have a flow tube that alows the engine oil to be blown out of it. It is quite common for the Cat tube to be to short and the overflow oil thrown out cloggs the inside of the radiator which causes it to heat up. I took mine to the Freightliner dealer for repair as I'm not to handy on tools. My suggestion would be to call either a Cat repair shop or Cat themself and chat it over with them as to the location of the tube and the heating up porblem to see if this could be the problem.

Sorry for the confusion.

[03heritagerider]

11B Thanks for clearing it up and I'll do that as a preventative measure.

However, Gene and I are pretty sure our rigs are not actually overheating. We both feel that if the coolant were to get hot enough to sound all the alarms, then it would take a lot more than 5 seconds for it to cool down to normal when you crest a hill.

Also, I've never had mine overheat in the hottest summer heat or heavy traffic congestion, but it will send the needle to hot as soon as you start to climb a steep grade, even in the dead of winter.