My car is running hot

well with the coolant usage...unfortunatly your gonna need to check the head gaskets...and it sounds like that could be your over heating problem as well...id check them to make sure...try flushing out your cooling system and refilling it....drain your oil and see if there is coolant in it....check if your tstat is working....does the high speed fan kick on when the car sits for awhile???


Anthony

I second the head gasket. Leave the rad cap off and turn on the car and check to see if bubbles start to appear if so its the head gasket.

94 Mustang GT said:

The high speed fan seems to come on but my dad says it doesnt seem to move much faster than the fans normal speed
the coolant may be low from the temp being very high when i was stuck in traffic leaving the fireworks because when i pulled over at mcdonalds i looked under the hood and i could smell coolant

Click to expand...

this may be true, but you need to check the HGs...because if they are shot you could put the best cooling system on the planet in the car and its still gonna continue to over heat.....im still leaning towards HG....


Anthony

Napa also sells a kit that hooks up in place of the radiator cap and has a fluid inside of it and if it detects combustion gases it turns color.

Yeah why not it can only help if it's not the head gasket. If your lucky your old tstat is only sticking and thats cheaper than doing head gaskets.

I would start with a proper flush & fill of the cooling system, right after installing a 180* thermostat.

Check to make sure your oil doesn't look milky, that's a surefire sign that a head gasket let low.

If you're still having trouble after all that, it never hurts to upgrade to a larger radiator (like fluidyne)

I had a problem like that on my old 94 GT Conv where it would over heat when I would sit in traffic or when the car would just idle. What was going on the fan was not kicking on to cool the engine down. So what I did to avoid overheating until I got it fix was just turn on the heater when I saw the temp rise. It would kick the fan on causing the engine to cool down. Eventually I went out a bought a thermostat that goes on top on the upper intake manifold and it corrected my problem.
Joe

If it was me the first thing I would do would be to hook up a jumper wire as if you were going to do a "Key On Engine Off" test and turn the key on. You should hear the fan come on and then you should hear the fan speed up. This will tell you if your fan and CCRM are working properly. If you hear the fan come on and hear the speed change distinctly then they are probably good. I would then unplug the jumper, start the car up and watch the temperature gauge and the fan. By the time you get somewhere around the "R" in normal the fan should have kicked in. If it has not I would check the Engine Coolant Temp sensor. This is the sensor that tells the computer when the car needs to turn the fan on not the one that runs the gauge. If you have a Chiltons it tells you how to test it or you could pop for the $15.00 and get one at Autozone. While you are at it if the as the temperature goes up around the "R" feel the upper radiator hose. If it is not hot then your thermostat is probably not opening. In that case I would put a new 190 thermostat in. Your fan is triggered to work with a 190 thermostat, not 160 or 180 (some will argue a 180 will run cooler, not a big deal) Definently flush the radiator very well, put about a 40% antifreeze/60% water mixture with a bottle of Redline Water Wetter (available at Advance Auto or Pep Boys). The manual fan switch mod is great, I have it on my car, but you have to understand that it is a band-aid, especially on a stock car. My mom's 95 GT conv runs between the "N" and the "O" all day long.
You have to get in there and do some good old troubleshooting and figure out just what is not working in the system or people will have you spending a bunch of money on what broke on their cars and your stuff will still be running hot.

Good Luck!