About to post a trip report on my first long-distance excursion in the diesel, but thought I'd post up a question about how hot all your 3.0's run. While coming home from our trip, we were heading southbound on California's Interstate 5. When we arrived at an area called the Grapevine, we started our winding crawl up the mountain from about 1500 ft elevation to about 4200 feet elevation. It wasn't overly hot for California, but it was in the low- to mid-90's on the valley floor, and just below 90 at the top of the pass.
As we headed up the pass, we saw the typical old cars and overloaded cars, trailers, and SUVs pulled over on the side overheated. Hoods up. People staring at steam rising out of their radiator.
As we continued our climb, I noticed that our temp gauge started climbing as well. No big deal. Then it really started to get high. Hmmm. Then it settled down right below the red (orange?) mark near the top of the temp gauge. At that point, I stopped traveling at 70mph and pulled over a couple lanes and dropped in to a slower pace. Temps came back down. By the time I hit and was over the pass, it was back at about mid-level or lower on the gauge.
So, gurus, would I have overheated had I kept it up? Did I have anything to worry about? Should I have been more cautious from the getgo?
As an aside, I was carrying our Thule roof box, four bikes, a load of camping supplies in the back, and my wife and child.
As we headed up the pass, we saw the typical old cars and overloaded cars, trailers, and SUVs pulled over on the side overheated. Hoods up. People staring at steam rising out of their radiator.
As we continued our climb, I noticed that our temp gauge started climbing as well. No big deal. Then it really started to get high. Hmmm. Then it settled down right below the red (orange?) mark near the top of the temp gauge. At that point, I stopped traveling at 70mph and pulled over a couple lanes and dropped in to a slower pace. Temps came back down. By the time I hit and was over the pass, it was back at about mid-level or lower on the gauge.
So, gurus, would I have overheated had I kept it up? Did I have anything to worry about? Should I have been more cautious from the getgo?
As an aside, I was carrying our Thule roof box, four bikes, a load of camping supplies in the back, and my wife and child.