I recently bought a 2013 f-150 screw ecoboost xlt with max tow, 3.55 gear ratio, 6.5 ft bed with 145,000 miles on the clock to replace my 2002 silverado 2500HD 8.1L. The ride in this truck is so nice! I live in the Salt Lake Valley (Utah) and I've been up Parleys Canyon (6% grade) a couple of times with my travel trailer (7500 lbs max gvwr, dry weight of 3600). This thing has tons of power, but overheats while pulling up the canyon... The first time it overheated I wasn't paying attention to the gauges and warped one of my exhaust manifolds 
that was an expensive repair... the transmission didn't heat up at all though. The second time i shifted down to 3rd to keep rpms up and kept a much closer eye on my gauges. The transmission got hot (3/4 of the way to red) along with the coolant but I kept it out of limp mode. I ended up crawling up the last part at about 20 mph behind a semi... I later read that I probably should have locked out 5th and 6th, leave it in drive, and tried to maintain 55mph. I'll try that next time I go up that canyon. I also want to monitor the air intake temp 1 and 2 to see if the CAC is getting heat soaked...
I did find that there was a ton of dead bugs and dirt on my a/c condenser and my intercooler. I was careful and vacuumed most of that stuff off using a shop vac and water. I do have the TSB flap over the intercooler which I plan on removing, and drilling a weap hole.
Anyways I've been looking for someone that has installed the freakoboost radiator upgrade (2011-2014 F150 3.5L EcoBoost Full-Race Freakoboost Radiator Upgrade FR-RAD_ECO) and if it actually helped with coolant temperatures? Will a radiator be enough to solve my overheating problems or would I be better off spending $700 on an upgraded CAC? Would both upgrades be in vain and I'm stuck with an overheating truck? It would be nice to maintain 60mph while towing grades... especially because the truck has the power to do so!
that was an expensive repair... the transmission didn't heat up at all though. The second time i shifted down to 3rd to keep rpms up and kept a much closer eye on my gauges. The transmission got hot (3/4 of the way to red) along with the coolant but I kept it out of limp mode. I ended up crawling up the last part at about 20 mph behind a semi... I later read that I probably should have locked out 5th and 6th, leave it in drive, and tried to maintain 55mph. I'll try that next time I go up that canyon. I also want to monitor the air intake temp 1 and 2 to see if the CAC is getting heat soaked...I did find that there was a ton of dead bugs and dirt on my a/c condenser and my intercooler. I was careful and vacuumed most of that stuff off using a shop vac and water. I do have the TSB flap over the intercooler which I plan on removing, and drilling a weap hole.
Anyways I've been looking for someone that has installed the freakoboost radiator upgrade (2011-2014 F150 3.5L EcoBoost Full-Race Freakoboost Radiator Upgrade FR-RAD_ECO) and if it actually helped with coolant temperatures? Will a radiator be enough to solve my overheating problems or would I be better off spending $700 on an upgraded CAC? Would both upgrades be in vain and I'm stuck with an overheating truck? It would be nice to maintain 60mph while towing grades... especially because the truck has the power to do so!
