Horsepower Loss / Cooling Problem

[A Wild Neg]

I own a 83 Mustang 5.0 all done. I bought it like this, and the owner before me had a cooling problem. It would run at 220 + temp and he had all the goodies to try keeping it cool.
The first thing I did, was replace the radiator from the one he had to a large alum. one. I put in an high temp electric fan which was controlled by the temp, but I soon changed that to a toggle switch. The car is basically a street legal strip car. So to run hot isn't to bad, but at 220 is pretty hot. The next thing I tried, was taking the thermastat out. I put in a 180 after that had no effect. Then finally I adjusted the timing, found that the intake was loose, and now it runs about 200. Which is great. It keeps a large large amount of power even while its been running @ 200 temp for 15 minutes.
The problem comes afterword. I'm not sure what else could be causing it. After the car runs for 20 minutes of just cruizing around town, I start to loose an enourmous amount of power. It's still got alot, and powerful, but I can tell from the time I took it down the street to cruizing around town 20 minutes later, that their is power missing. So my guess is a heating problem somewhere. Something gets hot, and causes my power decrease? Any other ideas? What should I replace to keep it cool?
I'm going to order a double radiator / 2 electric fans to keep the colant cool which really isn't a issue anymore (But to be safe). I'm going to go from 5 qt oil pan to a 8 qt and get a super oil cooler. I'm going to then get a custom ram air kit mainly for the cool dense air from outside the car this way the carb isn't getting this hot air thats inside the engine compartment. Is there anything else anyone can think of or possibly check that could be doing this and I need to replace? Thanks!


- Kevin (A Wild Neg)

[Skankin]

Does it heat up when it's idling?

Are you running underdrive pulleys? The stock setup runs the pump 29% faster than the crank... the March underdrive pulleys will run it 10% slower than stock. If you put the stock water pulley back on (keeping the underdrive crank), it'll run about 6% faster than the crank. If it's still a problem, you can get an overdrive waterpump pulley for a 93 cobra, and it'll bring it back up the the 29%.

A www.stewartcomponents.com water pump is highly recommended (unless you already have an edlebrock pump).

My guess is a blown head gasket (it probably overheated). Now, once it heats up, the steam lifts the head up, and you loose compression.

Are you loosing any coolant? Is there any in the exhaust? Residue around the headbolts?

You could pick up a code scanner from Walmart (about $25), and run a cylinder balance test. If one of them is leaking, it'll show up weak.

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'89.5 5L LX, hatch, Medium Canyon Red, 155K Km (No winters), 5sp, 3.08, GT interior, a/c, Alpine CD, K/N, Crane PS91, Walbro 190 LPH, March Pulleys, Mr. Gasket 180 therm (HP balanced), 3 core rad, MarkVIII fan, Variflow controller, Polygraphite front bushings, FMS-5300B springs, 6 KYB's, 73mm Calipers, Maximum Motorsport 4pt chassis brace, Western Motorsport Racing's Sub-frame connectors. Re-ringed bottom end, conv. motor mounts, melling oil pump, FMS-C50 waterpump, GT40P heads (blended, polli

How old is the block? Years of cooling system neglect before it was modded may have caused the engine to have partially blocked waterways. Your power loss may be stalled coolant in the intake manifold from lack of flow heating up the incoming air/fuel mixture so it's less dense and more vaporized. If this is a new engine/block, then it's more unlikely, but maybe this is a fresh idea. Hope you figure it out!

[A Wild Neg]

Originally posted by Skankin:

Does it heat up when it's idling?
- It will go from 195 - 200 or even higher if i'm sitting at a stop light, yes.

Are you running underdrive pulleys?
- All the drive pulleys are actually stock. I did recently break my timing chain by popping the clutch (I have a very high horsepower engine). After replacing that, doing my timing, it runs really good, just looses power. But this problem has been around even before that. I will check into a eldbrk water pump though. I'm all for redoing the whole cooling system if I have to.

Are you loosing any coolant? Is there any in the exhaust? Residue around the headbolts?
- Well, when I run the car for LONG periods of time, such as taking it to school which is about a 30 minute drive, come home after about 2 hours of sitting, and then come back out to check on the car, i'll have a small puddle of coolant. Started with a leak I found in my resivour (Spelling?). That has bee fixed, but I found out I had a little bit of coolant come from the left side of the block. I coulnd't pinpoint it. Only did it once and never again, even though I have driven it farther then that.
- Nothing in the exhaust, only condensation when I start it up in the morning, but goes away. Head bolts are even fine.

You could pick up a code scanner from Walmart (about $25), and run a cylinder balance test. If one of them is leaking, it'll show up weak.
- It's a stripped out, carb'td car. No computer. It's pure street racing. Gets taken out once in a while.
- I'll check into the water pump. I'll also check on getting a bigger radiator which I planned on doing. I talked to another guy at a store, he said to get a resistor and take out my thermastat completely. I'm also working on a ram air system for a 91 carb'td car =) I can't find any in a boook or any kit at all. Any ideas?

- Kevin (A Wild Neg)

[A Wild Neg]

Originally posted by 84stangLX:

How old is the block?
- The block is a rebulit 5.0 bored over. It just recently has been rebuilt with bigger everything. I've done 2 oil changes, no shaving or nothing, so i'm assuming that department is good. But like I said before, I noticed a bit of colant somewhere leaking from the side of the block or up higher. Next time it does it, i'm going to have to track it down.

- Kevin (A Wild Neg)