It really may be the simplest thing

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Dreman

Junior Member
Joined
Dec 24, 2020
Posts
1
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0
Location
Texas
Ram Year
2008
Engine
4.7
Sometimes it really is the simplest solution.

My son took my 2008 4.7 crew cab back to his army base when he was done with leave. However, he called a few months later when he was on his way home for Christmas and said the truck was overheating. He is based in El Paso, Texas, and I-10 between El Paso and San Antonio is hundreds of miles of road with little to nothing along the way. I'm serious when I say it can be 50 miles between gas stations. I told him there was water in a jug in the bed box, so he filled it back up and headed out again. I called to check on him and it went straight to voicemail. There aren't a lot of cell phone towers out there, either. We got nervous after a couple of hours and no phone call and decided to head that way and find him. He did finally call when we got about halfway there and said he didn't notice his phone had died. Anyway, we met up with him and I checked the truck out. Turned out it was a cracked seal on the radiator cap! Simple fix. Drove it all the way back home with no issues.

He left the truck with us while he is stationed in South Korea, and I've been driving it to job sites. It started getting hot again at any speed over 50-60mph. Not all the way to HOT, but I'm used to never seeing the gauge move at all past halfway no matter what, so any movement means stopping and checking the water level. Never boiling over, but always low coolant in the radiator. Plenty in the overflow tank, though. And no leaks. No white smoke from the tailpipe, either. It finally came to a head when it took me almost three gallons on a 200 mile trip! I'm thinking on the way back that I'm going to have to do a complete pressure test to see where it's going, when on a whim I got another radiator cap for it. The new one felt a little looser than I liked, so I pinched the tabs on the cap with pliers until it felt right. 75mph all the way home, with no movement after warmup. It's worked great ever since. All that worry over a simple radiator cap!
 

HemiLonestar

Senior Member
Military
Joined
Jun 1, 2012
Posts
5,991
Reaction score
2,952
Location
MD
Ram Year
2016
Engine
5.7 hemi
Go with OEM whenever possible. For some reason modern Mopars don't like aftermarket replacement stuff.
 
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