Bought an 87 GT...problems and questions!!!

[1FatPony]

This is my first fox body mustang. Its an 87 GT 5.0 5 speed. it has a rebuilt tranny, crane cams, k$n, and flowmasters. There are several problems I have.

1. The engine overheats.
As I was driving it home today it overheated probably 3-4 times. The first time it overheated over the red line until I couldnt even see the needle anymore. Then one of the hoses popped off. so I pulled over, tightened the hose, and filled it up. Then it overheated again and it was leaking out of the radiator cap. I waited till it cooled off and filled it back up with coolant and water. Than it overheated again a little while later. This time it was leaking out of the thermastate housing. i just waited till it cooled off and then filled it up again. The last time it just overheated and the fluid went into the overfill box. Luckly I finally made it home. What could be the problem here? I know there could be several places to look but where should I start?

2. Weird dripping noise in engine
When the car overheated for the last time, while I was waiting for it to cool down I started to hear this dripping noise in the engine. It was pretty fast but it didnt start until about 10 minutes after it overheated and about 5 minutes after I filled it up with water. When i tried to start the car it didnt start immediately and before I started it again I could hear the water dripping really fast somewhere in the engine (not the radiator). What could this be?

3. Engine bogs sometimes.
I have some kind of crane cam on the car so it does have somewhat of a "rough" idle. When Im at a stop light or jsut starting the car it sometimes will stall if I dont keep my foot on the gas. It was running fine when I test drove it at the guys house. This bogging was happening when the engine was really hot and overheating. Could that have something to do with it?

4. Ticking
I am pretty sure this is just a loose rocker but it kept getting worse and worse as the engine got hotter and hotter. Is that normal?

There is some smoke coming out of the exhasut sometimes but very little. It is sometimes white smoke and other times black smoke. Again it is very little and i does this when it is very hot...about to overheat.

Thanks

 

[JChalfan]

1. If your car is overheating that badly, do not keep driving it. Get it towed home, or wait for it to cool all the way down and drive it if you have to. You could have a bad thermostat or a clogged radiator. You could have a badly blown head gasket. Like you said, it could be many things.

2. The dripping noise was probably coolant boiling inside the engine. I can't think of anything else that could make a "dripping" noise when you are overheating.

3. The bogging was probably from the engine being WAY too hot. Again, don't drive your car if it is overheating that badly.

4. The ticking is not good.

If you don't know a whole lot about working on cars, I would suggest you take it to a trusted mechanic (have it towed!) and let them diagnose the overheating problem. It sounds like it may be serious.

Jeff

 

[ninety15.0]

1. If your car is overheating that badly, do not keep driving it. Get it towed home, or wait for it to cool all the way down and drive it if you have to. You could have a bad thermostat or a clogged radiator. You could have a badly blown head gasket. Like you said, it could be many things.

2. The dripping noise was probably coolant boiling inside the engine. I can't think of anything else that could make a "dripping" noise when you are overheating.

3. The bogging was probably from the engine being WAY too hot. Again, don't drive your car if it is overheating that badly.

4. The ticking is not good.

If you don't know a whole lot about working on cars, I would suggest you take it to a trusted mechanic (have it towed!) and let them diagnose the overheating problem. It sounds like it may be serious.

I agree...definately dont drive the car anymore if its overheating everytime you get in it. Prolly a simple fix...but if it is something serious...you dont want any internal damage. Secondly...the powerloss is simply b.c the engine was too hot....check TFI module and pull codes. I would say you best bet is to bring it to someone or spend a lot of time researching before you start tearing it apart. FYI white smoke from the exhaust is generally the sign of a blown head gasket. Coolant burns white...fuel burns black. So it sounds like you have a few problems with the setup. good luck

 

[DMAN302]

Headgasket and internal damage as a result of continued driving I think will end up being the answer to above questions. Cars do not overheat without reason...you just can't keep driving it until you're certain the situation that caused it has been solved.

 

[1FatPony]

Yea i am not driving it anymore unil i figure this out. I just had to get it home. It was about 60 miles away. it has almost 140K miles, do you think I should just rebuild the thing or try to fix all these little things? i want it to be a little more reliable but i dont want to spend 3K on the engine. more like 1.5K

 

[d.s.s 306x]

hey just a thought. if it's over heating that bad on your way home from buying the car.
#1 call the guy and tell him he sold you a p.o.s
#2 it had those prob before you bought it
#3 take it back and get your money back.
anyway you look at it i wish you luck

 

[vristang]

The ticking was probably the drivetrain from the oil thinning out.

Start by fixing what you know to be bad.
The T-stat and housing is a good place to start.
It sounds like the previous owner wanted to build a performance motor, but didn't know how and didn't bother to ask the right questions.

You may find the Stat was installed backwards.

By the Way-
I had to drive my stock 302 with a completely failed water pump. It took ~4hrs hours to travel about 75 miles, but I got there. Not a good thing to do, but I really had no choice at the time.
If you take care to resolve the current issue, the motor should be ok.

Let us know what you find.
jason

 

[Jaswir]

i would take the t-stat out and get it replaced... might be stuck close or open... check the water pump and see if there is anything coming out of the weep hole...

so try replacing

t-stat - 15 bucks
new cap - 5 bucks

and if possible might as well do the water pump if it has 144k - 30 bucks

also pull codes and see if aby thing else is wrong

 

[1FatPony]

I got the car for $1000 bucks so Im not too pissed off. For that cheap I can spend money on the engine. It also has a rebuilt trans with less than 300 miles. I will check the thermastat today and see if there are any problems but i am considering a full rebuild.

 

[1FatPony]

i forgot to mention there seems to be an internal water leak. I think that is actually causeing all my problems, the bogging, overheating, white smoke, etc.

I just checked the thermastat and there is none

 

[ninety15.0]

i forgot to mention there seems to be an internal water leak. I think that is actually causeing all my problems, the bogging, overheating, white smoke, etc.

I just checked the thermastat and there is none

Well thats your problem right there. You need a t-stat or else that water does not stay in the radiator for long enough to effectively cool down. Replace it with a nice mr. gasket 180* t-stat and see what happens. If you are consistently blowing white smoke i would also look hard at a cheap rebuilt/gasket set. you can just re-ring and bearing it for well under 1.5k...like u said u could afford. Even make some improvements...good luck

 

[gcwh02]

I dont get why you have a stock engine with "rough cam" in it

 

[S&B]

just search in your area find a nice swap out engine. For 500 bucks you just pull yours and try a diff one.

 

[1FatPony]

i have been searching around for rebuilt engines but havent seen any yet. could someone give me some useful 5.0 websites tha have some good parts and engines? Im new to the 5.0s.

 

[dastang2]

i don't believe that it is overheating because of no thermostat. i have none and it takes 30 minutes of idleing to get to 180 with the fan off. i can drive without the fan in the subdivision and it won't hit 200. i do have an upgraded radiator though but i still don't believe that the lack of a thermostat is a problem. what color is the oil. you may have a blown head gasket now. how nasty does the core look inside the radiator. any buildup

 

[1FatPony]

the oil looks normal. Same with the radiator. I watched the flow of water with the radiator cap off and the engine on and it looks good. I am currently taking apart the engine and going to see if anything is wrong inside. I believe there is an internal leak somewhere. most likely will need a rebuild

 

[dastang2]

if there was an internal leak you would most likely have water in the oil. if it was leaking into the cylinder, you would have lots of steam out of the pipes and it would run like crap. what do the plugs look like.is the fan clutch any good. it should be hard to turn when the engine is cold or you could have a big air pocket in the heads and that may be the whole problem.

 

[1FatPony]

the fan turns easily. It does run like crap. There is soem white smoke but not a lot. I havent checked the plugs yet.

 

[vristang]

I would say not to pull anything apart just yet.

Take the time to do some more diagnosis first.

Pressure test the cooling system. This will make it easier to find any leaks as well.

jason

 

[C_Heath]

white smoke = water where its not spose to be