Running hot while climbing mountains

[Iahawkeye]

I just wanted a second opinion, while driving up one of the canyons in Salt lake city today, the temp gauge was running 2-3 clicks right of 210. Sorry, I don't have the scan gauge so I am relying on the dummy gauge. Anyways, at the bottom of the hill, it was 95 or so at 5000 feet. While climbing up to 7000 feet, and running th a/c, it was running that warm. The higher I climbed, the cooler it got until we reached about 70 degrees, and, of course, the envoy cooled down as well.

A couple of questions, is it better to run in 3rd and keep the rpm down or in 2nd and turn about 3500 rpm? It is a nice paved road and traffic is moving about 40-50 mph. Next question, how warm is too warm? I shut the a/c off to get the temps down as it began to cool off outside, and to get a little more power. This helped drop the engine temp.

I have recently replaced the t-stat, the temp sensor, and from the inside of the engine compartment, blew water out through the radiator. I think I have done just about everything a guy can do to keep the envoy running as cool as it can. Any other ideas?

Lastly, I just kinda wanted to brag about climbing high mountains and finding some cool temps(64 was the coolest I saw this afternoon). I know my folks in Iowa and many of you maybe sweating it out right now.

Thanks for your input.

 

[The_Roadie]

I tow in conditions like that in 2nd to keep the RPMs up which can help with the fan airflow through the radiator. I'd suspect you have a fan clutch problem, except it should have thrown a code if the actual fan RPM was less than the commanded fan RPM. Did you hear significant fan noise that you didn't hear when the gauge was at 210?

 

[Sparky]

2-3 ticks isn't to the next major hash mark yet, so that doesn't sound bad for going up the mountain, with the AC, in warm weather. I personally wouldn't be too worried about that.

Generally I let the vehicle pick the gear, which is usually 3rd gear unless it is really steep. I rarely tow anything.

 

[Iahawkeye]

I tow in conditions like that in 2nd to keep the RPMs up which can help with the fan airflow through the radiator. I'd suspect you have a fan clutch problem, except it should have thrown a code if the actual fan RPM was less than the commanded fan RPM. Did you hear significant fan noise that you didn't hear when the gauge was at 210?

Sorry, I haven't responded for awhile, we were in Yellowstone and hd no internet...kind of nice to be away. Answer to your question, no, I didn't notice any fan noise. This makes me wonder if the tune pcm4less did might have something to do with running warm. I replaced the fan clutch with a dorman- I think, 2 years ago. And more recently, replaced the thermostat and temp sensor about 5 months ago with ac delco parts.

I ordered a tune with increased mpg as my goal. Would those guys program the fan to not engage unless it reaches a really high temp? I am very new to the tuning scene and do not fully nderstand what they may or may not have done. I have not had the cel come on so no help there.

One more symptom, while waiting in the drive thru, I noticed that the temp gauge was reading over 210, the engine idle in park was close to 1000 rpm. It idles that fast when it is cold first thing and then ALWAYS settles back to 600 rpm or so. Was the engine trying to move more water through the system in efforts to cool itself down?

I do appreciate the help, and maybe I might be worrying just a bit ( my wife tells me this all the time), but I really don't want to be one of those guys that gets stuck on the side of the road in 100 degree heat with 3 kids in the car. Thanks!