[Guy]

Sitting here in North Carolina reviewing the past years travels. Everything from a scary boil over on Baker Grade on the west side of Las Vegas in the Summer, ( it is amazing how fast you go from a manageable engine temp to oh-oh) , to an easy pull up through east bound  70 to Denver and 11,000 ft altitude, engine temp holding at 185 F,  with the ambient air being i 30 F. After the Baker Grade overheat, I put 1000 miles on the coach and sent oil samples to Blackstone. Everything came back great.

I understand the the 8V92 was never designed to be cooled in the manner that the Classics do,with the radiator being cooled with hot air being pushed out of the engine compartment through the radiator. I never took a reading, but even with hi temp wraps on the exhaust system, I am assuming that the temp of the air cooling the radiator is well over ambient  air temp.

Have any Gurus every toyed with the idea of forcing air in the  vents on the side of the coach, via a fan similar to a fan used on newer coaches? Would this assist the radiator fan, or just send air in one side of the engine compartment and out the other?

[Johnnyboy]

I personally do not think adding fans on the sides would have much benefit. Could be wrong, but I know a few who have the older foretravel gran villas with the rear radiator who added a water spray system on the radiator that use it on long climbs to cool the engine down. Some use a separate tank with pump or others tap into there fresh water supply to spray the radiator.

[Guy]

As messy as misting is, I have given that thought. Might be a fun experiment.

[Fulltiming]

If you don't use distilled water you will end up with lots of minerals caked on the inside of the radiator. But if you aren't pulling long grades often, you shouldn't need to use it that often. It should work well if you can get some quality spray heads that cover the radiator.

[Guy]

Thank you. I never thought of the hard water aspect. We have not needed it often, but on one occasion on Hwy 17 From Phoenix about Bumble Bee, it was high ambient, combined with altitude and no pull outs to cool down that worried me. Ended up aborting and heading back down the hill and taking Hwy 10 east, instead of going up to 60. Never had a problem in Tahoe, or the California Sierras, or Continental Divide  as there is plenty of opportunity to pull over and cool down.

I thought I might  have radiator issues that are limiting cooling capacity. I put my 39 dollar bore scope ( thanks for the tip Richard ) and took a good look after lowering coolant level . Did not see anything out of the norm. Tubes look great. Radiator fins are now super clean.

I do know that between my Digi-Panel, and antique dash gauge, the coach can go from 190-195 to spitting out coolant in a heartbeat.  We call this the baker Grade Las Vegas episode.    Not something I ever want to have happen again.

I am open to any and all suggestions. In the mean time we will plan our trips around ambient temps and altitude.

[77newell]

If your radiator shroud is the same as on the 93 coach I had, it is very inefficient. It is designed for suckling air through the radiator rather than blowing it through as occurs in our use. If you look online for images of rear radiator rv pusher chassis you will see a bell shaped inlet to the fan and the fan blades are entirely within the shroud, our coaches have neither of these features. I taped yarn strips onto the shroud just back from the fan far enough not to get ripped off. With the engine running there was lots of turbulence shown by the yarn and much of it was flowing outwards, not inwards, indicating that air at the tips of the unshrouded parts of the blades was being thrown outwards before circling around and hopefully being captured by a part of the fan that would force it through the radiator. I don't know the percentage of loss this represents but with our units every loss can make a difference.

[Guy]

Thanks Jon. I will give ours a look.  I don't remember if this fan is entirely within the shroud. ( No two Newells are alike)    Great tip.....

[folivier]

Jon I remember the four corners getting dirty and clogged much sooner than the center circle. Surely there is a solution somewhere?

[kyleb]

Mine came with some technical articles that stated that Newell's testing proved the rear radiator setup provided more cooling than a side radiator.

It was also stated that a properly functioning cooling system in our classic coaches would have coolant temp stabilize at 125F above ambient.

For what it is worth . . . . .

[Guy]

Kyle, the documentation on ours was lost before the previous owner bought it. We still have a few "what the heck is that things " on our coach, but not to many.
I am thinking Newell would calculate 90 degree ambient air to produce 215 F temp coolant to the radiator ? ( 90 F + 125 F )