Hot running Turd

Fopar · Aug 11, 2007

brought my car to a open track even for some driving (ThunderHill) today and I found out the marginal cooling system is worse than I thought, about 15 minutes into a run it was time to get off because it was HOT.... This car has always made heat (no power though ), seems to get hot fast and even though it has a chip and it's set so the high speed fan is on at 170ish degrees it still runs anywhere from 180-200 or more depending on conditions.

To add injury to insult even when I was driving home it was acting like a turd, it was waving around 1/3 to 1/2 way on the gauge just on freeway driving with no A/C on. And after I got on the backroads if there was a small hill to climb even cruising at like 55 it would get up to the "A" if the hill was long enough. It wasn't even that hot out today, maybe in the upper 80s.

The car is mostly stock, but it has that chip and underdrive pulleys. The water pump is new, the T-stat is new and a 180*. The only things it could be is the underdrives, the radiator (which looks newish and clean inside) or something with the motor. The underdrives do underdrive the water pump a good amount but I thought alot of people are running them with no problems .

I have a bone stock 94 as well and that one runs cool as hell, the fan isn't even on most of the time...

bmac50 · Aug 11, 2007

Fopar said:
brought my car to a open track even for some driving (ThunderHill) today and I found out the marginal cooling system is worse than I thought, about 15 minutes into a run it was time to get off because it was HOT.... This car has always made heat (no power though ), seems to get hot fast and even though it has a chip and it's set so the high speed fan is on at 170ish degrees it still runs anywhere from 180-200 or more depending on conditions.

To add injury to insult even when I was driving home it was acting like a turd, it was waving around 1/3 to 1/2 way on the gauge just on freeway driving with no A/C on. And after I got on the backroads if there was a small hill to climb even cruising at like 55 it would get up to the "A" if the hill was long enough. It wasn't even that hot out today, maybe in the upper 80s.

The car is mostly stock, but it has that chip and underdrive pulleys. The water pump is new, the T-stat is new and a 180*. The only things it could be is the underdrives, the radiator (which looks newish and clean inside) or something with the motor. The underdrives do underdrive the water pump a good amount but I thought alot of people are running them with no problems .

I have a bone stock 94 as well and that one runs cool as hell, the fan isn't even on most of the time...

As cheap as coolant is why not flush the system and while your at changing it try distilled water rather than tap and add Water Wetter. I use 60% distilled water, Water Wetter and the rest coolant.

With the engine hot check the hoses and make sure they are real soft.
Have the cap pressure tested.
Check and make sure the fan is actually working.

STM1965 · Aug 11, 2007

What he said and

bmac50 said:
As cheap as coolant is why not flush the system and while your at changing it try distilled water rather than tap and add Water Wetter. I use 60% distilled water, Water Wetter and the rest coolant.

With the engine hot check the hoses and make sure they are real soft.
Have the cap pressure tested.
Check and make sure the fan is actually working.

Check the rad for air bubbles and for flow as I just went through this!

Dino Dino Bambino · Aug 11, 2007

Your problem could be the underdrive water pump pulley. I suggest you swap the stock WP pulley back on and remove the underdrive WP pulley. You'll need a shorter belt but this will at least allow the WP to turn faster and it might solve the problem.
The fear of overheating or charging problems is the reason why I only went for an underdrive crank pulley.

DDSTANG94 · Aug 11, 2007

take out the chipp

Fopar · Aug 11, 2007

yes, took the chip out... made things way worse. With the chip the high speed is on at pretty much all times, without the chip only the low speed is on at 208*, it spent the whole time in the middle of the gauge and easily spiked into the "M" range . I'm sure the pulleys have something to do with it....

1TallMF · Aug 11, 2007

My car will run cool when it wants to. I took mine open-track racing and it spent the majority of its time in the upper ranges of the gauge, with the high-speed fan running almost constantly. Then on other, even hotter days, sitting in heavy traffic with the A/C on, it'll actually run really cool, like barely touching the "N". Its annoying.

Dante30 · Aug 12, 2007

You may also wanna check your timing. Although the rad looks clean from the top it could have a restriction somewhere else in the radiator or block for that matter! What make and model and year car is this!

Another thing, say you drive the car constantly at any given speed, say 65 mph, your temp should stay within a reasonable range maybe no more than 1/2 hot. If the longer you drive your car the hotter it gets, that is likely a sign of a circulation problem with Rad or block. Are you the original owner, can you personally account for the all the parts in your cooling system to be factory stock or stock replacement. If someone had the car before you, there is no tellin' if you have all the right equipment for that vehicle. Best of luck to you, I would urge you to take a closer look at that radiator, assuming you have no head gasket issues.

Fopar · Aug 13, 2007

ya the radiator is the next suspect... I wonder about a head gasket sometimes but it doesn't appear that the cooling system is getting pressurized or anything

Fopar · Aug 17, 2007

Another update, I swapped to the stock crank and waterpump pulleys, made no appreciable difference. Today I put in a new radiator (got a good deal so figured what the hey) and of course that made no difference either. I flushed the system before I swapped radiators and the water was clear... It runs ok if you keep the R's low. But if you have to climb a hill or you keep the R's high it just keeps going up. I was hot dogging it on the freeway tonight keeping it in 4th and flooring it as much as I could and I got the gauge past the "R"... and the air temps are like 70 degrees or less.... I pulled over and checked it with an infrared gun and the upper rad hose was like 185-195, the lower like 160 and the lower intake manifold where the ECT or where the temp sender was like 200-208...It seems like it's rejecting heat, the fan is blowing hot air from the radiator it just seems like it makes too much heat for the cooling system....

So do Fords just suck balls? I'm starting to think so, it's not like the turd is making alot of power and it's overtaxing the cooling system . Someone trade me for a mopar .

Chythar · Aug 17, 2007

I'm having the same problem with my GT, but I'm waiting for one of the Mishimoto radiators to come in before I really dig into the system.

Now remember, Ford doesn't build engines to exact tolerances. There's some give and take on these things, so some engines run better than others. It's also my belief that the stock cooling system is barely good enough for the V8. If your engine runs a bit warmer, it takes less to overwhelm the system.

What else have you done to your Stang that's not stock? Gears? Street/strip tranny? Are those rubber & plastic strips under the radiator, under the metal support? They're supposed to deflect air past the radiator.

You may just have to get an aluminum radiator to keep your engine cool.

Fopar · Aug 17, 2007

has pulleys gears and a chip, it's always run on the warm side and all of the mods have been off at one time or another... It's just a plain turd . Hey did you get a motor with that parts cobra?

Dante30 · Aug 17, 2007

bMac50 mentioned running with some wetter water in the rad. That's worth doing! You have spent time and money hunting this problem down, every little bit helps. Also take a look at your Elec Fan, make sure it's doing what it should. My 94 usually works fine, however, the car got hot one day and the Fan shut off! I replaced the switch (ect) and been fine ever since. Do you have the correct t-stat, for that engine, summit makes a good-quality high-flow t-stat for our cars. I really feel that there is a restriction or something in your cooling system. Either the water is circulating too slow(Restriction or wrong T-stat) or too fast (no T-stat). Good luck, keep trying things until u figure it out. You just might have to upgrade to a mishimoto or grifffin rad. They cost mucho $$$ but work extremely well. Good luck!!!

Chythar · Aug 17, 2007

Fopar said:
has pulleys gears and a chip, it's always run on the warm side and all of the mods have been off at one time or another... It's just a plain turd . Hey did you get a motor with that parts cobra?

Yes I did, and it's going in my V6. No Fobra for me. Got a black interior available though, including the dash. And a black Cobra trunk lid & spoiler.

I'd recommend against watter wetter right now. It will actually transfer more heat away from the block into the coolant, and your cooling system isn't transferring enough heat as it is.

So, you have gears in? Your rpm's are a bit higher now, which might be enough to make the engine run hotter. It shouldn't, but it is. You never mentioned if you have that rubber piece attached to the bottom of the radiator support, and the plastic piece in front of it. Check both cars - I would guess one has them, one doesn't.

go-stang5.0 · Aug 17, 2007

Get a real temp gauge on there...200deg. is fine. Actually our cars are designed to run hot for better emissions... 230 is not out of the normal range of temps for a stock motor. It's kinda a mixed bad I have seen guys running 11's w stock cooling just minor changes like tstat and changing fan on temps. and theres many of us on here who cant get the cooling sys. to work well on stock 14-15 sec cars.

I also track my car and FYI I run a fluidyne, 1 bottle of watter wetter, 180 stat, and 50/50 coolant water mix and have no problems with my motor whatsoever with a full set of UD pulleys. But then again every track is different. How warm was it at thunderhill when you were there?

But yea I would start by removing the UD WP pulley and go from there.

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