Overheating Issue

[Ryans67]

Well during the last month the car has been in and out of the shop getting little stuff taken care of. I finally got the car back for a decent amount of time yesterday and ran into a couple issues. First, it seems as if the car has been running tremendously hot since we got it running. Its probably only had 100 miles put on it, but the gauge appeared in the normal position. Well we put a different gauge on it and found out otherwise. We pulled the t-stat and found pieces of an old t-stat behind it. It seems a broken t-stat was never removed. So now that it seems to be running alot cooler (180), but when I really get on it for a few minutes, the temp is back up around 210. The other thing is that when im getting on it, smokes coming out of the exhaust. Usually once I hit about 4k rpm. I checked the oil, and it appears to be free of water. Do you guys think I blew a headgasket? Any ideas on what the problem may be? Thanks, -Ryan

 

[marine_2003]

Overheating can be a number of issues, from the basic raditaor cap, to a blown head gasket. What raditator is in it? What type of fan?? Have you had a dye test run? Pressure test??

 

[ricky50]

Also, what color is the smoke as well?

 

[86bluecobra]

If the smoke is white i would say there is a good chance its a head gasket.

 

[vristang]

Well during the last month the car has been in and out of the shop getting little stuff taken care of. I finally got the car back for a decent amount of time yesterday and ran into a couple issues. First, it seems as if the car has been running tremendously hot since we got it running. Its probably only had 100 miles put on it, but the gauge appeared in the normal position. Well we put a different gauge on it and found out otherwise. We pulled the t-stat and found pieces of an old t-stat behind it. It seems a broken t-stat was never removed. So now that it seems to be running alot cooler (180), but when I really get on it for a few minutes, the temp is back up around 210. The other thing is that when im getting on it, smokes coming out of the exhaust. Usually once I hit about 4k rpm. I checked the oil, and it appears to be free of water. Do you guys think I blew a headgasket? Any ideas on what the problem may be? Thanks, -Ryan

Hitting 210F after several minutes of hard driving is not a problem. If you get over 220F you need to start being careful.
If the car is always at 210F then you also would need to keep an eye on things.

What you describe is not abnormal though.

The smoke at high rpms can be several things.
Color of the smoke can be tough to see.

Since it only happens at WOT and high rpm, I would guess crankcase gasses are causing some issues with the pcv.

Check out your pcv hose and TB/VC hose. They should not have wet oil in them.

Also pull the intake tube and look into the TB (with the blade open of course) .
If there is oil in the intake, that will confirm the pcv/crankcase ventilation issue, which is very common in our Mustangs.

jason