As many of you know, I spend a lot of time in the Nevada Desert working road races. Driving along in the high heat usually resulted in engine temperatures that approached 220 degrees, even thou the thermostat was rated at 180 degrees. Going up mountain grades resulted in slowing to go into 4th gear just to keep the temperature at 220. After a radiator re-core and thermostat change, no improvement (the new thermostat design from Cummins does not work well in a pusher configuration)

The following are the mods that I have done with a great improvement in operating temperatures. for the complete write up .PDF form go here:
air intake

A snap shot of what I have done is this, I modified the opening so that the area has been increased and bending the grill so it would collect much more air.

Before:

After:

After reducing the restriction in the grill I added fans to both sides:



This modification reduces the amount of air drawn up from the road (HOT AIR) thru and by the engine fan to the radiator, Air at the grill openings is much cooler and this mod has resulted in almost 20 degrees operating temperature. Where I had been driving along at 70 MPH in 100 degree ambient the engine would reach 220, now it only goes to 200 and when I lift the temperature of the engine drops quickly, even going up grades in 4th, the fans help keep the engine temperature at or below 200 degrees. I have added a coolant switch that turns on the fans when the engine temperature gets to 195.

In addition to keeping the engine temperature down, the engine room is MUCH cleaner then before, not nearly as much dust is drawn up by the engine fan.

Clever! Looks like the fan I put on the external oil cooler I installed (capping the oil cooler in the radiator.

The two strokes Detroits really had a problem with overheating. One of the popular helps were misters that we put on the radiators. This would spray a fine mist over the cooling coils and you can drop the engine temp 20+ degrees in a matter of minutes. Usually had to use it to climb the western hills. Never used it for more than about 15 minutes.

quote:

Originally posted by Gary Carter:
The two strokes Detroits really had a problem with overheating. One of the popular helps were misters that we put on the radiators. This would spray a fine mist over the cooling coils and you can drop the engine temp 20+ degrees in a matter of minutes. Usually had to use it to climb the western hills. Never used it for more than about 15 minutes.

There was commercial product sold called the Desert Super Cooler that drew from the coach water tank to mist the radiator. I used a home made version on several tow cars.

Here is a slightly less elegant solution to air flow on a Twin Coach diesel pusher: