Filling coolant in DOHC?

well an easy way I was told is to drill a couple (two) of little holes in the themostat (helps get the air out. here is what the Sean Hyland book has to say on the subject...

When filling from empty, purging the air from this (talking DOHC) system can be troublesome. The procedure we use is to fill the cooling system through the water crossover between the cylinder heads with the cap removed from the hearder tank. When the header tank fills, we tighten the cap and continue filling the crossover tube. Once the tube is full, the engine is started. The technician monitors the engine while it warms up, feeling the thermostat housing periodically, to feel when the thermostat has opened. Once the thermostat has opened, we continue monitoring, until the cooling fan has turned on, cooled the radiator, then shut off. Once this has occurred, the engine is allowed to cool, and then topped off through the header tank. If the thermostat fails to open, as it occasionally does, shut the engine off and let it cool, then restart the warm-up procedure. One thing we do which helps considerably is to drill a small hole in the edge of the thermostat. I notice the factory caught on to this idea in the 2003 cobra. The thermostat can be changed also exchanged for a cooler one. There is certainly some power to be gained in running the engine at 185 degress instead of 200. Try not to run to cold however; the engine requires some heat to make power............and it goes on and on.

Hope that helps!

I heard the 2003 cobra's came with a 180 degress themostat?

The L's do I'm not sure about the cobra's

I haven't check my owners manual BUT my 97 cobra owners manual had the refill procedure written in it. Also my buddy bought a 180 for his 10th anni. Took it apart and OH! it had a 180 from the factory.

Ford manual

king said:

Had a hose get into my timing adj. Wore a nice little hole in it at the track! How do you properly fill these things? We had to dump it through the little plug on that black crossover looking thing up top. Finally got enough water in it so i could get it home. Input please? its a 03 mach 1.?????????

Click to expand...

Here is a paste from the Ford manual:

Filling

All engines


Place the heater temperature selector in the maximum heat position.
CAUTION: On 3.8L engines, the vent plug must be removed before radiator fill or the engine may not fill completely.

NOTE: It is important to maintain engine coolant concentrate between 40 percent or -24°C (-11°F) and 60 percent or -52°C (-62°F).

Fill the engine cooling system with 50/50 mixture of water and engine coolant E2FZ-19549-AA (in Oregon F5FZ-19549-CC, in Canada CXC-10) meeting Ford Specification ESE-M97B44-A.

Leave the pressure relief cap off and run the engine until it reaches normal operating temperature.
Stop the engine and add the correct engine coolant mixture to the degas bottle/coolant expansion tank until the coolant level is between the COOLANT FILL LEVEL marks.
Turn the engine off and allow the cooling system to cool. Check the level in the degas bottle/coolant expansion tank, and add a 50/50 mix as needed.