LS Cooling Issue

[jonmc56]

Nice truck. I read this thread with interest because I like a mystery, and was interested to see how it turned out. When I saw the cause, I realized that we have something in common! A few years ago I bought my truck in the middle of winter. On a warm day I was driving it and looked down to see my temp gauge nearly pegged. After several troubleshooting steps, I decided that the radiator must be plugged. I disconnected the radiator and was about to lift it out of the truck when I noticed something funny in between the radiator and the condenser. I pulled it out, and it was a large piece of sheet metal, in front of the radiator! Obviously this was my problem, but as long as I had the radiator loose, I took it to Beaverton Radiator for a flow test. After hearing my story the guy there thought I was nuts for even bringing the radiator in, and it flow tested just fine. I asked the PO what the sheet metal was for, he said it was to get the motor warmed up faster in cold weather. Since I bought the truck in cold weather, the sheet metal was still there.