OK. Long story short, here it is:

Driving home from a customer site on the Interstate. All of a sudden, traffic is stopped.

Stop and go for 2 or 3 minutes and then we start to move again. I glance at my Temp gauge and it is at 245*!

I turn my stereo off and listen and to my surprise, my electric fans are not running.

I hopped into the emergency lane and popped the hood. The fuse to the FAL 270 was blown? I checked all the wiring for a short to ground and could not find anything.

Not having a spare fuse that size, I stripped the two wires and taped them together.

The truck never went into "limp" mode, nor did it steam up or make any funny sounds. It ran just fine and it still does (had to drive another 30 miles or so to get home and it seemed fine all the way).

With the fans running, it cooled down in just 1 or 2 minutes.

So, what I'm wondering is: Do you guys think I damaged the engine? I looked at the coolant and it is clear green; the oil isn't milky; no steam coming out of the exhaust, etc.

Any info or insight would be greatly appreciated, as I'm really wondering if I hurt my baby...

 

i seriosuly doubt that you did any damamge, it was just running hotter than normal. They usualy run between 165 - 205 or so, so i wouldnt imagine that 245* would do any significant damage. If everything is running fine and it stays cool, I wouldnt worry too much about it. Check coolant level to see if you perhaps lost any; if your worried, take it in for a second opinoin

 

That's wierd that the fuse blew on the power supply.

I think you got lucky this time

 

That sounds like it climbed up there very quickly in just a few minutes. I realize your in Florida but it's not that warm yet there is it? By limp home mode, I guess you mean when it kicks into using 4 cylinders to fire and 4 to suck air. If it didn't go there, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Especially if your running syntheitc oil. You probably shut it down before anything bad happened.

 

One thing you should do is CHANGE the oil, regardless of how new it is. When I race and if something happens to the car that makes it run hotter then normal we ALWAYS change the oil.

245 will not hurt anything but it may very well broke down the oil some. It's cheap insurance to change the oil. It may not be degraded at all, but as I said in racing they ALWAYS do it, that tells you something.

 

I agree...Mobil 1 is good to 500 degrees F and Red Line is good to 600 degrees F, so if you are using either one of these, you should have no long term effects. I'd still change the oil, though.

 

talk about a hot engine? 2 years ago, I checked my antifreeze and to my stupidity, I left the radiator cap off ( found this out about 1 week later) I have always had an active temp. gauge and didnt pay much attention, until coming off a highway by my home the temp gauge pegged and the engine stopped, tried to restart and popped the hood, felt like a furnace. allowed to cool down, replaced coolant, found the damn cap on the radiator shroud, started right up, no problems at all. thanks to the mobil 1 oil I betcha

 

Thanks for all the replies, guys !!

I had already stopped and bought the oil on the way home. I wasn't running Mobil 1, I was running the FOMOCO Synthetic Blend.

I think it's OK, I guess I'll just have to wait and see...

I also bought a new fuse for the FAL 270.

Thanks again !!