More cooling issues

[93lxtwin]

Ok, finally got all the air out of my cooling system, I think..... After the latest rebuild, head gaskets, h20 pump, hoses, seals, and electric fan conversion, my latest issue seemed to pop up tonight. I have an electric fan I bought from Sumitt, it flows 2,010 cfms, comes on at 180 degrees and is adjustable to up to 240 degrees. I have a 180 degree thermostat in the car and it seems to be running great. Until tonight......on the way home, now it is extremely hot here on the coast of North Carolina right now mind you, I drove to pick up my son, stopped for a few mins where he was with the car idling. The electric fan was running and I had the AC off. I noticed when I pulled away that the temp gauge was climbing, slightly over halfway. Not too alarmed yet, except my son is 2 and doesnt like the windows down. So now I turn on the AC, cooling great, temp climbing up more. In town driving still, so stop and go. Hit the local bypass to head home, temp gauge staying at 3/4 rest of the way home with AC on. Didn't overheat really, but is running hotter than it should. Wondering if the electric fan isn't enough. Still have my stock fan sitting at the shop. Do you think I should put it back on with a new clutch? It never ran hot with it except in traffic with the AC on, thats why I decided to do the electric conversion. Thanks for your help guys.

 

[curtisboytejr]

was this temp guage rising at night? What i would do is get or borrow a laser style temp guage that you can point and see what the temp is. The reason i'm saying it might not be overheating at all. The IVR in the foxes when bad will make the temp gauge rise when you cut one the lights and will climb a little higher with the brites on and will climb even higher with fog lights on and when you turn lights off it will drop instant. I'm not saying this is your issue but check this before you start tearing it down.

 

[93lxtwin]

yeah, i just saw that correlation this morning when i got to the shop. thinking about doing a 3g alt swap. when the ac is on, elec fan, and hid lights are on, voltage on the gauge is dropping to like 10 volts. need to put a meter on it to confirm. but im sure the ivr is junk and the 75 amp alt needs to be upgraded to a 130 at least. thanks for the info

 

[89stang1]

without a good temp gauge its tough to say, u didnt overheat and u were idling in traffic with ac on. My car has a 180 therm with 2 elec flexalite fans with a newish large 3 core Afco rad and if i was idling in traffic with my ac on my car would be running around 210, my advice would be to put a autometer temp gauge in before u start taking elec. fans out keep us posted

 

[4rdnut]

2010 cfm's is not enough air especially if the electric fan has no shroud and if you have a 180 t-stat you dont want the fan turn on to be 180 because the fan will cool down 8 degrees and now you are closing the t-stat so the engine now will heat up and open the t-stat and what this is doing is cycling the t-stat closed then open, not the way to do it. The fan turn on should be 198 degrees because most 180 t-stats dont fully open until 188 degrees and you want a 10 degree gap so you dont cycle the t-stat closed then open.

 

[93lxtwin]

Good point. I'll adjust the fan cycle point today. I actually think I wasn't overheating or even really running hot last night. I'm pretty sure this is electrical playing tricks on me through the gauge cluster due to the alternator not producing enough voltage to maintain the system's new loads. I'll hook up another mechanical temp gauge and see whats up. But I need to get my hands on a higher amp alternator. Any suggestions for a nice easy swap? What I mean is, is there any specific brand to get that is just plug and play with the factory harness, or is there some re-wiring to do? No big deal if I need to, just wondering. Thanks again.

 

[09secondGT]

yea, i dont think 2010 cfm is enough, mine pulles 2800, that was not enough, had to put a pusher fan on front of radiator.

 

[93lxtwin]

Pulled and pusher? How about a pusher and the stock fan and shroud? Damn cooling issues suck.

 

[4rdnut]

no, the pusher fan would just be an obstruction in front of the radiator. A lot of people bad mouth the flexalite black magic extreme #185 electric fan . I have one and have zero problems with overheating here in virginia summer heat. my engine has aprox. 340 hp and 340 ft lbs of torque and i can idle in hot traffic all day long at 198 degrees with a stock two core radiator. The fan pulls 3500 cfm with only a 18 amp draw. The controller that comes with the black magic fan is garbage. I upgraded that with a flexalite vsc (variable speed controller) with probe that fits into a fitting that is spliced into the upper radiator hose, works very well.