2004 Tahoe operating temp issue.

[nonickatall]

How long did it take, at 32° Fahrenheit to get the temperatur in the middle of the gauge, when driving normal?

I would like to know to compare. My Escalate 6Liter needs minimum 3-4 Miles or more. What is normal on this engines?

I drove today, temperature in Germany is 32° Fahrenheit. First route was 4 Miles, but down the hill, and second route, after a short break of 10 Minutes, 4 Miles up the hill. After 8 Miles, the temperature was at middle gauge.

Is that like it is on your Escalates?

 

[rockola1971]

I drove today, temperature in Germany is 32° Fahrenheit. First route was 4 Miles, but down the hill, and second route, after a short break of 10 Minutes, 4 Miles up the hill. After 8 Miles, the temperature was at middle gauge.

Is that like it is on your Escalates?

Engine warmup willo obviously be slower during the winter vs. summer but its not really that much of a difference. Your thermostat is sensing water temp toward the inside of your engine block coolant passages. We want the engine warm to get efficiency. The engines are designed to actually run better at the temps that they do. Try that with a old Gen1 SBC and you will blow a head gasket or crack a head or block soon. Your thermostat ignores the coolant temp in the radiator until it opens up and the hot coolant in the engine block starts mixing with the cold coolant in the radiator. This is why you see a sudden drop in temp as the thermostat opens up and then it modulates between full open to fully closed depending on coolant temp and the operating temp that the thermostat typically has stamped on its flat flange.
Change the thermostat and make sure to burp the system. Parking the front of the vehicle uphill or jacking front end off the ground around 6 inches helps.
Compare old and new stamped opening temp on flange of thermostats. Its possible you got one that was put in the wrong box or is just bad.

 

[nonickatall]

Thank you for your description. I know how an engine cooling system works and I know that depending on the specific design of the engine cooling system, there are significant differences in, how quickly they warm up or not.

I drive e.g. a Mercedes S-Class with the 5 liter engine. This heats up extremely quickly and is up to temperature after 2 km from the engine temperature display instrument. However, the heater takes much longer to warm up.

I as well drive a Chrysler Lebaron convertible that takes a relatively long, until it displays a normal engine temperature, but warm air comes out of the heater relatively quickly. s

Since I can't assess how it is with the Escalade, my question was how long it usually takes for you. Of course it depends on the time of year, so I wrote about our temperatures at the moment and would have liked to compare them.

best Regards from freezing Germany
Ralf

 

[Larryjb]

I drove today, temperature in Germany is 32° Fahrenheit. First route was 4 Miles, but down the hill, and second route, after a short break of 10 Minutes, 4 Miles up the hill. After 8 Miles, the temperature was at middle gauge.

Is that like it is on your Escalates?

My 2002 Tahoe with the 5.3L, it takes about the same time to heat up, maybe a little less, depending on driving conditions. I have a Scanguage so I can read the digital temperature that the computer uses. I will also let it warm up first so that the windshield won't freeze over on the outside or fog over on the inside.

Your Mercedes may have a thermostatically controlled valve to prevent loosing heat to the heater core during warm up. My Grand Marquis had one, but I removed it after it started to leak.

 

[rockola1971]

Are you missing your 10mm socket?