Overheating: Give Me Your Opinion

[92GreenGT]

Guys, I drove the car for at least 20 or 30 miles on Friday and everything was normal. My Ramchargers electric fan works very nice, so I come home and park the car. Saturday morning im going to leave for work so I crank the car up and let it sit for a couple of minutes, I walk in the house and walk back out and the car is starting to over heat. So I have to turn it off and take the Ranger to work. So, what do you think happened? Think the thermostat got stuck on closed or what? I had planned to buy a Grifin radiator in a couple of weeks but I believe I will buy one this wed. I am going to go pick up a 180 degree thermo and try it. I just recently changed coolant and waterpumps. I put in 50%antifreeze and 50%water&redline water wetter. All the times I have drove it since then I had no problems, but its like it just started in a instant. Im thinking its probably the thermo. What do you guys think it is?

Oh and plus should I buy a Motorcraft thermo for $14 or a remake for $5?

Dave

 

[88stangmangt]

idle is when a car get's the hottest. since you are geting a new rad i wouldnt worry about it. must common things are bad therm,old fluid or to much mineral deposits in your rad it's self.

 

[1940 'Stang]

This may sound simple, but make sure you have the proper shrouding around the fan. Shrouds aren't to make ugly rads and fans look pretty, they are to funnel and direct air properly through the core. I say this only as I have seen many an electric fan strapped onto a rad with those plastic straps and it simply didn't pull enough air through at idle. You should have a fan which pulls at least 2000 cfm. If it doesn't cover the entire core, make sure it is as LOW on the rad as possible (that's where it gets hottest) and has a tight seal between the fan housing and the core. Also, what temp is your relay set to go off at, or are you using an adjustible one?

 

[C&R Racing]

Silly question, but was the electric fan running after it sat for 20 minutes and was overheating?

Make sure if you buy an aluminum radiator, you ask if it is 100% aluminum with no epoxy on the headers. We've seen a lot of so-called 'all aluminum' radiators with epoxy filler where the tubes meet the core. This really hurts the heat transfer between the tube/fin assembly and the header tanks.

 

[HISSIN50]

Dave, how long was the car idleing from when you turned it on to when you came out and saw it overheating?
if it was a few mins, your stat should have been closed anyhow. the condition of the radiator would not matter much either. (im assuming it takes more than a few mins to reach the stat opening temp. i know my cars do).
what was it doin when it was 'overheating?' boiling over, temp gauge reading too hot? stock or aftermarket gauge?

if you want to swap stats, i personally really like Mr Gaskets. balanced, flows a little better, has a bleed hole, and from my observations, it opens fully sooner than a parts store generic does.

good luck.

 

[92GreenGT]

Dave, how long was the car idleing from when you turned it on to when you came out and saw it overheating?
if it was a few mins, your stat should have been closed anyhow. the condition of the radiator would not matter much either. (im assuming it takes more than a few mins to reach the stat opening temp. i know my cars do).
what was it doin when it was 'overheating?' boiling over, temp gauge reading too hot? stock or aftermarket gauge?

if you want to swap stats, i personally really like Mr Gaskets. balanced, flows a little better, has a bleed hole, and from my observations, it opens fully sooner than a parts store generic does.

good luck.

Stock Gauge
coolant was comming from the overflow
yes, I do believe the Thermo was stuck closed-Going to replace that first and if it runs fine im going to hold off on the rad right now, but its still planned as a upgrade.
Thats the thermo im getting, all of what you said and it has a good price.

Thanks for you all help, hopefully I get one tomorrow. I will report back in.

Dave

 

[HISSIN50]

sounds good. how hot were you running?
i might also toss a new cap on there - i do it every couple of years (or if i dont remember the last time i did it). when they go south, they dont hold proper pressure, which effectively lowers the boiling point.

i think you made a nice choice with your stat. it is pretty funny to hold a Mr G up next to a generic version (that costs only a few bucks less!) - night and day, i think. im anal about temps, down here a 1/4 mile from the sun.
good luck.