3.6L Radiator Fan Problem?

[Atcer2018]

I didn't see sand until I back flushed the heater core. It seems the heater core trapped most of that stuff. You could probably get a lot out (if any is present) just by draining just the heater core. That way you don't have to drain the whole system again. I used my garden hose to do it but you want to be careful not to apply too much pressure to the core. The hoses come off really easy too.

View attachment 544933View attachment 544934

Excellent! It’s now my weekend project.

 

[SitKneelBend]

Excellent! It’s now my weekend project.

A note on this...you'll want flush it pretty long time from both the upper and lower core hoses with the garden hose. I then put my funnel on the upper hose and filled it with distilled water to flush out the tap water (you can also use 50/50 if your levels are already good or concentrate if you need to add more coolant). Raise the funnel high to flush and lower it to stop the flow...eazy peazy.

Again, don't try to shoot full pressure residential from the hose, the pressure is too high for the heater core. I used one of the hose head settings on mine that reduced pressure and didn't seat it entirely in the hose to not let the pressure build. Another good tip I came across is you can use a higher setting but just pulse it on and off (don't let the pressure build).

 

[SitKneelBend]

Posting another note for anyone interested. My system was completely flushed and filled with about 20 gallons of distilled water. Assuming no coolant remaining, adding 5 quarts (I think I lost half a quart to a boil over while filling, the radiator and lower hose were empty for this) of concentrated MOPAR coolant brings the coolant concentration to about halfway there on this gauge, but considering this engine has a 14 quart capacity it looks like I'll need to go slow filling it from here to get the right concentration. It's only been driven a few hundred miles since adding concentrate too. I suppose maybe it hasn't fully mixed yet also?

 

[SitKneelBend]

Well dang, I had no idea that Mopar ever had or used an aluminum housing. I have no complaints with the plastic housing although I’ve seen complaints about the plastic crossover tube connected to the housing. Is your crossover tube plastic or aluminum?

Circling back on this, definitely an aluminum thermostat housing but still a plastic coolant crossover on my 2014 Ram 1500 Express. I checked all of my service records and have no record of the throttle body being replaced during any particular service, but to my knowledge MOPAR never made an OEM aluminum thermostat for the 3.6L so I have no idea where it came from...I forgot to snap a picture while the throttle body was off for cleaning but here's the best I could do.

 

[Different Drummer]

Circling back on this, definitely an aluminum thermostat housing but still a plastic coolant crossover on my 2014 Ram 1500 Express. I checked all of my service records and have no record of the throttle body being replaced during any particular service, but to my knowledge MOPAR never made an OEM aluminum thermostat for the 3.6L so I have no idea where it came from...I forgot to snap a picture while the throttle body was off for cleaning but here's the best I could do.

View attachment 545256

I am going entirely by memory. Several years ago I was trying to determine the Temp. rating of the coolant thermostat in my 2017 RAM. I went to a dealer and asked the parts people to look up a replacement thermostat in an attempt to get the Temp. rating. They did not list a stand alone thermostat. They did however list a thermostat housing / thermostat as a one unit purchase. The thermostat housing was in fact metal and was labeled as metal in the parts listing. There was some conversation at the time about the thermostat not being removable from the housing thus requiring purchase of the entire "kit". I think this has since been debunked. Perhaps the housing in question here was replaced at a dealer or possibly replaced by someone who purchased it at a dealer.
I believe that I mentioned it in another thread a couple of years ago and posted the part number.

 

[SitKneelBend]

I am going entirely by memory. Several years ago I was trying to determine the Temp. rating of the coolant thermostat in my 2017 RAM. I went to a dealer and asked the parts people to look up a replacement thermostat in an attempt to get the Temp. rating. They did not list a stand alone thermostat. They did however list a thermostat housing / thermostat as a one unit purchase. The thermostat housing was in fact metal and was labeled as metal in the parts listing. There was some conversation at the time about the thermostat not being removable from the housing thus requiring purchase of the entire "kit". I think this has since been debunked. Perhaps the housing in question here was replaced at a dealer or possibly replaced by someone who purchased it at a dealer.
I believe that I mentioned it in another thread a couple of years ago and posted the part number.

Thanks! I'm the original owner so maybe it's something that got slapped on in a service or came from the factory that way? I'm happy to see it there, I added a Dorman Brass bleeder to it since the OEM plastic one didn't survive my coolant flush.

 

[SoFLRam]

HP tuner shows a/c pressure has to be over 1900 kpa for fan to hit high speed

 

[SitKneelBend]

HP tuner shows a/c pressure has to be over 1900 kpa for fan to hit high speed

That's good to know. I "think" any value you see in any tuner is not what is actually read from the truck but is a default setting in the tuner.

 

[SoFLRam]

On the page with fan temp values... There. Is a sub tab. Pwm desired ECT go into the tables. It has ambient air temp and ECT TEMP. Mine where all at 228°F. Change those to 205° F (make sure if it is set on C or F kelvin is also there).

 

[SoFLRam]

That's good to know. I "think" any value you see in any tuner is not what is actually read from the truck but is a default setting in the tuner.

The tuner does either... Read current PCM or opens a file that you have saved to computer. As always, saved a copy of original "read" so you can write that back to PCM if necessary. When you change the original "read" and make changes to write to truck, be sure to save it under a different file name. Ie. 2013 ram 1500 with fan changes

 

[SitKneelBend]

On the page with fan temp values... There. Is a sub tab. Pwm desired ECT go into the tables. It has ambient air temp and ECT TEMP. Mine where all at 228°F. Change those to 205° F (make sure if it is set on C or F kelvin is also there).

Ok, that makes sense as 228 is the only time the fan comes on for all of us without tuners!

 

[SitKneelBend]

In my cooling quest I decided to do a little experiment before adding in Royal Purple Ice to my freshly flushed system. I mixed it with concentrate coolant to see if it has a reaction. It appears I can see the RP Ice in the container (I've kept it in the sun for two weeks in a shiny metal dish to heat it up as much as possible. It looks like it's gelling (cloudy white material settled in the bottom of the first picture and shaken up in the second). Not sure if this counts as a reaction as I think RP ICE is meant to coat metals/plastics/rubbers in the cooling system and without circulating it looks like this.

 

[SitKneelBend]

FIN...

 

[jonahhaley14]

The other day when parking in my garage I noticed my coolant temps getting up to 230 before going back down to about 219. It wasn't a very hot day, maybe mid 70s and about a mile of mild driving before reaching my house in the neighborhood.

I plan on changing the coolant soon but before I do I wanted to know if this electric fan behavior seems normal to anyone and/or if someone knows exactly which temperature my PWM fan should be ramping up at. At present, the fan only comes on under two scenarios:

1. When the coolant temp reaches 230 (then drops to about 219 and turns off)

2. When I turn on the AC (turns on a few seconds after engaging and remains on continuously, temperatures hover around 213 with AC on)

It seems to only be running at only one speed too but I remember it being louder in the past and ramping up when idling. Occasionally when it's below 230 I will see it wobble left to right like it was about to turn on but then stops. Additionally, I will occasionally hear a high pitched whine when I shut off the vehicle for a short time. I've tried using AlfaOBD to see if I can engage the PWM test but all I here is a click sound when I start the test and another (slightly different whine) sound then another click when the test ends with the fan never having engaged (not even the left right wobble). What I think is happening is that the fan is only moving when commanded by the PCM to be on high-speed but it is only spinning at low-speed.

Any thoughts? Anyone deal with something similar? Do I need a new fan or could this be something else?

2014 Ram 1500 Express 3.6L 4x4 845RE

I am having the exact same issues with my radiator cooling fan. It only running at a low to low/med speed? Did anyone figure this out or run down and at home fix/ programmer to fix besides going to dealership?

 

[jonahhaley14]

I recently went to pick my daughter up from school about 3 hours away. Truck was loaded with her dorm room stuff probably didn’t weigh more than 300 pounds. It was a hot day and the drive back was in the 90’s most of the way. I’ve deleted the AGS shutters on all but the top and bottom rows so the truck has been running at less than 210 in local traffic and 195-205 on regional highways. During the long 90 plus degree drive sometimes doing 70mph+ with the AC on the temps would climb up into the 220’s. If I turned the AC off temps dropped back down to the 210’s. Does anyone else see coolant temps climb with the AC on at highway speeds? I’m assuming this is because the fan is programmed to come on at around 230 and never getting to that temp allows the system to park in the 220’s. Doesn’t using the AC force the fan on or does it still use a temp profile and operate at designated temps only?

Almost word for word what your describing is the exact things my truck is doing. I have dropped thermostat to 185? Changed leaking cheapo radiator to 3 row all aluminum bigger one. Changed water pump as well and flushed system 3 times and back with oem coolant. Did shudder delete and it doesn't even affect the temps trying to stay lower. It's starting to **** me off. Im about to go old
school and yank the thermostat and let that bastardly just constantly circulate!!!!!

 

[jonahhaley14]

When I got the HP tuner, jumped right into the fans. Low: 210°F. Med : 224°F. High 234°F

Way hotter than I wanted. So I changed them.

So hp tuners allows you to view the settings? Can you adjust them too? Also what did you have to do to the ecm in order to get it to work with ecm? Please ive been on this forum searching for tuners and which ones and how for 1 week now. Lol you the first one to admit what tuner and what it's capable of. My name is Jonah Parker, my number is 409-300-9153. Please give me a text or call and explain the process please sir!?

 

[jonahhaley14]

That fan controller was suggested by another member when I inquired about e-fan adjustments with AlfaOBD. Supposedly it works with Ram trucks.

I bought the specific one for my 2017 and it's an adjustable one but it did nothing but turn the fan on constantly on low like when turning on the ac. IT NEVER RAMPED UP TO HIGH ONCE I HEARD. ANY INFO HERE WOULD BE APPRECIATED.

 

[SitKneelBend]

I am having the exact same issues with my radiator cooling fan. It only running at a low to low/med speed? Did anyone figure this out or run down and at home fix/ programmer to fix besides going to dealership?

From everything I've seen, it's getting to those temps by design. The reason changing parts out isn't quite working is because the trucks programming wants/lets it get to those temps.

What fan controller did you pruchase?

 

[Yardbird]

I've finally started ignoring the 220 to 224 temps when in slow traffic in town or climbing mountains. The temps always start coming down after they get to 220-224

I don't like it, but I'm living with it. I had decided to install a pusher fan in front of the radiator where the shutters used to be. I haven't gotten around to that yet.

I was going to put a thermostat to pop the fan on when the temp reached around 205-210 deg. A toggle switch under the dash would work also.

I've had so many things going on the past two years I haven't ordered the parts to install that system yet. I had my parts picked out and ready to order, but everyone knows how other things get in the way.

I used to be way more concerned with the temps until I decided there are millions of 3.6 Pentastar engines with hundreds of thousands of miles on them, running the same temps.

That put the urgency to fix the temp problem further down on the to do list.