When can we say the engine is over-heating with autometer gauge

[bock]

I just install a autometer mecanical 240° water temp gauge.

With the 180° thermostat the engine stay at 180° when riding.

When can we say it's over-heating?


210°? 220°?

 

[ECU5.0]

220 is startin to get hot

 

[gt90stang]

Ford chose 242*F to shutoff the AC with the PCM to prevent overheating.

Don

 

[BlackFox5.0]

At 210* I start to worry, I just flip on my Mark VIII fan, and it's back down to normal in just a couple minutes.

 

[N8Miller]

i would invest (as i will be doing) in the summit aluminum radiator. got good reviews and its only like 130ish.

 

[Mustang5L5]

A friend of mine bought some GT-40P heads from tri-state. They came with these plugs in the front water jackets that supposedly pop out if the coolant reaches 220 degrees. If they pop out, warrantee is void.

So 210-220 gets my vote.

My car only sees 200+ only if i forget to turn on my electric fan

 

[10HoleLX]

195 degree is stock t-stat opening temp.
stock iron heads could take a hefty beating when it comes to heat.

Aluminium heads I would keep under 200 degree!

 

[cardudeusa]

I just got through installing some edelbrock aluminum heads. With all the mods in my sig it still wants to stay around 210. When I'm not running down the road. I think It may because of the underdrive pullies.

 

[Michael Yount]

If your cooling system is functioning as it should (proper pressure, proper mix of antifreeze/water to raise the boiling point) even with aluminum heads there's no reason to worry unless you start to ease up into/above the 220F/230F range. There are MANY aluminum headed and even aluminum blocked oem cars with 195F-ish t'stats whose fans don't even come on until the 210-220 range.

I define overheating as it starts to puke fluid/steam. And of course it's too late then - with aluminum heads you may warp something once it starts to boil. With your set up, if it got to 220-230F or so and appeared to be climbing, I'd start looking for ways to cool it down - turn off the a/c, turn on the heat, pull it over and shut it down and get the hood up. Just as a comparison point, I raced an iron block/aluminum head car in SCCA in the heat of south TX for eight years. Many, many races run in June-August where ambient temps were 100F, track temps were 140-150F. The car would run with the heater on full blast for 30 minutes to 2 hours at a time, between 5000-7000 rpm with the temp gauge sitting right in between 210F-220F, and oil temps - well, who knows what the oil temps were-no gauge. Never had a problem with puking fluid, overheating, etc. On the cool down lap at the end of the race, temps would drop back to 190F or so. The biggest challenge was pitting for fuel (no cooling fan on the car) - no time to cool down before you just stopped the car - it'd often be 230F or so for a minute when I fired it back up and headed back out.

 

[cardudeusa]

Michael, do you think if I got rid of the underdrive pullies, that would help my situation?

 

[Michael Yount]

Cardude - it's possible. Most of those sets slow down the water pump - so you're moving less water at idle. Are you sure your electric fan is capable of moving enough air across the radiator? If you still have your old pulleys, I'd slip them back on and see what happens. If that doesn't fix it, I'd wonder if the fan has enough capacity. There's a good market for the pulleys so you'll get some bucks for them. I had to remove them from mine to solve low speed cooling, ineffective a/c at low speed and sqealing power steering pump during parking lot manuvers.

 

[cardudeusa]

I also just intalled the 160 amp alt and at idle it doesnt charge either. Damn pulies.

 

[HISSIN50]

all of the posts sound good. for me, i normally worry more about what temp is getting 'hotter than desirable,' rather than overheating per se (as defined by Michael [that is how i define it too]).

IIRC, the puter pulls timing at 226* (please correct me if im wrong - that is a foggy recollection). that might help allow a decision about what the factory thought was hot.
that said, i try to keep it around 195, which allows for it to get hotter and possible gauge error (i have two).
BTW, it was my recollection that the a/c was pulled after timing was pulled (confirmed by Don, though i could not remember the temp - my poor recollection was ~235*). i would rather have the a/c shut down before timing starts to get pulled. i guess it is an interesting commentary on what the factory thinks is important to the customer.

my two cents worth.

 

[Michael Yount]

The computer also increases idle speed at some temp (at my in-laws tonight - no Probst reference handy!) to put a bit more coolant through the radiator.

Cardude - if a 160 won't charge at idle, you've really got it slowed down. Most of their gain (underdrives) occurs above 4000 rpm - they're simply not worth it on the street in my opinion - unless you live WAY up north. Throw the stockers back on and see what happens.

 

[cardudeusa]

Yeah, I have a friend who "thinks" he has his old stock pullies. Seeing as how I didnt keep mine. Here in FL I'm more worried about my aluminum heads now than the .02 of a second I may have gained at the track with the U/D's.

 

[87'GTstang]

Another often-overlooked cause of poor cooling is a worn out impeller on the water pump due to all kinds of crap inside the system from rust, other buildups, deposits, you name it. They just simply don't push the coolant as efficiently or fast as they may once have. Not too common a problem, but those much older pumps and poorly-maintained systems are the usual targets.

 

[cardudeusa]

Another often-overlooked cause of poor cooling is a worn out impeller on the water pump due to all kinds of crap inside the system from rust, other buildups, deposits, you name it. They just simply don't push the coolant as efficiently or fast as they may once have. Not too common a problem, but those much older pumps and poorly-maintained systems are the usual targets.

Thats good to know, because the radiator in my car had nasty deposits in it when I got it.

 

[Michael Yount]

While mineral deposits do build up over time, from my experience, they will make a radiator or/and t'stats ineffective LONG before they'll have a significant adverse impact on a water pump. As a practical matter, every water pump failure I've ever seen has simply been failing seals around the shaft which cause leaks out the weep hole. I've never seen an impeller failure on a pump - not saying it can't happen; just saying it's so rare that I'd look for more likely culprits before I started wondering whether deposits on the impeller were impeding flow.

cardude - in your case I'd lose the underdrives and see how that helps both your water flow and your fan effectiveness (alternator speeded up). If you're still overheating in traffic, but it cools down when you start moving - you've likely got a fan issue.

 

[cardudeusa]

While mineral deposits do build up over time, from my experience, they will make a radiator or/and t'stats ineffective LONG before they'll have a significant adverse impact on a water pump. As a practical matter, every water pump failure I've ever seen has simply been failing seals around the shaft which cause leaks out the weep hole. I've never seen an impeller failure on a pump - not saying it can't happen; just saying it's so rare that I'd look for more likely culprits before I started wondering whether deposits on the impeller were impeding flow.

cardude - in your case I'd lose the underdrives and see how that helps both your water flow and your fan effectiveness (alternator speeded up). If you're still overheating in traffic, but it cools down when you start moving - you've likely got a fan issue.

Yeah, thats what I'll do. I think it may also be time to ditch the proform fan. I've heard good things about the ramchargers fans.

 

[Look Its Aaron]

What would you guys consider over heating on the stock water temp gauge?