Engine Temperature To High?

[jikelly]

How high is too high for my engine temp to be running at?

We took my 73 on a trip to the inlaw's this weekend. It's about 330 mile from here to there and towards the end of the trip both ways my engine had creeped up from the 200 it seems to run at on the highway up to 210. Should I be concerned?

 

[SnwMnkys]

Not at all.

 

[SadbutTrue]

as long as it stays there, it should be okay. I believe most classic mustangs are supposed to run slightly cooler than that but so long as it isn't overheating, should be fine (my cadillac runs at about 210 degrees at all times, and a lot of newer cars run even hotter than that for emissions purposes).

 

[jikelly]

I wish I remembered which thermostat I bought. I'm guessing it must have been the 185 degree one since that is about where it sits at low load/idle.

I'm eager to find out what my milage coming back was. Going out there it was 17. I was hoping for at least 20, but at least it wasn't 12, and I was driving about 85 the whole way out there. I'm gonna figure this new roller block is more efficient cruzing at a lower RPM.

 

[SadbutTrue]

do you have a t-5 or other OD transmission? 17 ain't bad, thats about what my 351w used to get on the freeway with my c4. haven't measured it with the t5... i just tell everyone it gets 20 and hope I'm not lying.

 

[jikelly]

I've got a tremec 5 speed with the .68 overdrive gear. Course my rear end is set up with 373s.

 

[Fast63]

Are you starting to have hotter weather out there in Texas? I would start to worry when you hit 230.

 

[D.Hearne]

210 is no sweat. It ran hotter than that in it's original application. The roller 351 I had in a 95 E150 once got hot enough to "vapor lock" out in Nevada and did no damage to the engine. It had no numbered temp gauge, but the engine fan wasn't working while pulling up out of Boulder Canyon with a trailer at 10 mph.