shortcamp

Hi,

I have owned diesels in the past but recently got my first dodge, a 94, and have a couple of questions for the experienced owners on here if you would be so kind.

The first is this thing takes forever to warm up in the morning, is that normal? I did change the thermastat thinking my old one might be stuck open but it was not so no change in the problem.

The second, after I changed the thermastat and refilled with coolant I have a air/liquid sound, as in rushing air/coolant sound coming from my heater in the cab. The sound is when going from an idle to acceleration, up to mid throttle. It is almost like there is air in the heater that needs to be blead off, I have never encountered this in any other vechicle. Help please the noise drives me nuts.

Thanks,
Mike

gs1000

My truck also has a new thermostat and yes, it takes a bit to warm up. Last winter I put some cardboard between the intercooler and radiator, helped warmups a lot.

Also do you plug in the block heater. Mine only makes the sounds from the heater after I had it plugged in.

shortcamp

gs1000,

Thanks for the reply! The noise(sloshing noise) from the heater does it if it has been plugged in or not. Also does not matter if I have the heat on or not, and did not do it before I changed the thermastat. I just find it unusual as I have changed more than a few thermastats and never had that happen before in other vehicles. I also have put probably 150 miles on it and it is still doing it, would have thought it would have worked any air in the system out by now?????

dieselpwrRam

It does take time to warm the beast. I took a waterproof tarp and cut it to the size I wanted for the front of the radiator. I used two of the grommets for an attachment. The spacing between the two metal grommets were that of the two unused bolt holes on the cross over piece on the front below the hood latch. I used two bolts to secure piece of tarp to the front of the radiator.When the temp. permits I just roll the tarp piece up for more air flow. Had the edges of my tarp folded over a half inch and sewed for a finished look.

CarlJensen

The rushing water sound you hear is from the heater core. Mine does this sometimes also, but only until the thermostat opens up. Seems that it gets a head of air in that part of the system sometimes and it won't bleed out until the system pumps enough fluid for it to bleed off to the radiator. All of these beasts take a LONG time to warm up. That is the reason for heaters in the cold country. Install a tranny heater for much quicker warm up. Here, where it stays warm, the whooshing sound goes away pretty fast. Where it is colder it may take quite a while.

patdaly

FWIW, Cummins says do not idle these beasts, they do not use enough fuel at idle to warm up.

I start it, let things get moving, then run it real easy for the first few miles, I usually have cab heat in 3 miles or so even when it isn't plugged in.

When it is really cold out, 20 or below, I can watch the temp gauge drop while idling.