I've been having some overheating problems. My temps are always around 200 degrees and as soon as I start up a hill, they shoot up to 215 and then the electric fan comes on. This was happening all the time and didn't seem like the way Ford would design it.
As some of you might remember from other posts, I have the Aluminess front bumper with the Warn PowerPlant winch. This is the winch that has a super air compressor built in on top of the unit. I mounted the bumper and winch as soon as I got the rig home from Fresno, so I don't have any experience with the van with the stock bumper.
In looking at the Aluminess, it's not very streamlined and probably doesn't help the air flow to the radiator. My taller winch sticks up about another four inches above the bumper and further blocks the radiator. Maybe this is why I heat up so much? Anyone else with the Aluminess and 6.0 have the electric fan come on a LOT.
Anyway, I built a little scoop out of thin steel and mounted it to the bottom of the bumper. This directs a lot of air up and behind the bumper and directly to the bottom half of the radiator. The scoop sticks down four inches, but because I put it to the rear of the bumper it doesn't affect my approach angle. Now my temps stay around 195 and the electric fan only came on twice while low range crawling in my recent trip to Saline and Death Valleys. This little mod seems to have corrected my problem. Anyone else had this problem or have a better suggestion?
Here's a photo of the scoop.
It attaches in two places to the bottom of the bumper and then clamps to the brace SMB added between the front frame rails. I just added some screen to keep small dogs, kids and rocks from getting scooped up into the radiator. Now to make it all black so it doesn't show.