When to worry about overheating

[FreighTrain]

Hey all,

I'm looking for a little advice, I hit a cow elk at night at about 55 mph with my 05 duramax, I did a look over the truck and it had quite a bit of damage but I had a cow catcher on it so it was good enough to drive home. Apparently the radiator developed a slow leak, after about an hour of driving it it started warming up, as soon as I let off the throttle it would immediately start cooling down. It was this way for about 25-30 minutes, figure it was fine as long as it would only get 10 degrees or so above it normal operating temp. About 10 minutes from home it stopped cooling down as fast but I figured I could make it home (really long day and I just wanted to get home) the dash started saying coolant was too hot. About 1-2 miles from home it started climbing pretty much at the top of the indicator as I pulled in my driveway.

Now I'm paranoid that I caused long term damage, I don't want my motor to blow up in 5000 miles and the insurance to say it wasn't due to the accident. E guys at the shop that fixed it said no codes, wasn't overheated for an extended period, no problem. Then I read that the duramax will go to limp before it lets you cause damage? Need advice.

Thanks guys!

[DmaxMaverick]

Welcome aboard!

The insurance company is correct. The overheating was not caused by the collision. It was caused by your driving it after the collision. This would never be advised or covered, except in a real, immediate, and unavoidable emergency situation. In other words, they hold no liability in regards to that.

That aside, according to your account of the situation, it is very unlikely you will have any long-term damage. The LLY PCM is (overly) protective of the powertrain, especially with high ECT. If it's properly repaired, it isn't likely to experience any further issues as a result of the collision.