Newbie w/ some questions.
 

Hello all. I'm a newbie in this forum, and although I own a '92 GT and do the repairs on her myself, I don't know jack squat on what to do to improve her performance. I have a few problems with her that are giving me a hard time as well, and I hope that you guys can help me out.

My first problem could be deemed mechanical in nature:
My 'stang really tends to heat up in the city. I have a 160 F. thermostat installed and a fairly new 3 row heavy duty radiator. The fan clutch is fine, and the water flow is good. No visible problems with the water pump either. Is there anything that I am missing that can be causing the car to heat up like this? Could it possibly be a stopped up cat? Would a flex fan help? Would cutting out the cats help? In deep South Texas, the inspections are not hard to pass. They never look uner the hood or chassis to see if everything is legal. I was told that if I cut out the cats, I will need to buy a chip for her.

Problem 2 Quick and easy performance hop ups.
What should I add...quick and easy for starters? I want to keep her as a daily driver, so I don't want to lose much gas mileage. I know I have to sacrifice some for performance, but I don't want her to drop to less than 15 mpg. I have some pulleys on her, but that's about it. I'm looking to get a K&N cone filter, but do I have to buy the complete air inlet assembly, or can I just bolt the cone onto the stock air inlet? Would new headers help? If so, whick kind? I've heard things about shorties, but I wouldn't know which to get. What else is a realatively cheap and econmical bolt on improvement?

160 thermostats are a no no for 5.0's, they stay open all the time, especially in summer, never allowing the coolant to stay in the radiator long enough to cool, goto a 180.

Well I probably can't answer everything, but I'll do what I can.

Your heat problem could be a bad water pump, or a blockage somewhere. It's also possible that moving up to a 180 thermostat will actually keep it cooler because a 160 basically stays open all the time, and therefore doesn't give the water enough time to cool in the radiator. A flex fan would cool it a little better, but it is much more dangerous than a clutch fan and it will rob you of a few more horsepower than a clutch setup.

If you lose the cats, you don't need a chip. Whoever told you that was just plain wrong. I have an off road H-pipe and no cats, just like many members here and we don't need chips.

The K&N issue can go either way. If you're still using the factory air box, then they sell a K&N filter that fits right into it. If you're using a fenderwell induction, then you could still just buy a cone filter.

Cheap performance mods, are a fenderwell air induction system, bumping the timing up to around 14, but make sure there's no detonation. If the air silencer is still in your factory airbox, then remove it for a couple of horses.

There are many different things beyond that which you can do, but we need you to tell us what kind of performance you're shooting for and we can guide you onto the right track from there.

Thanks guys...
 

I'll go buy that 180 thermostat after work...I'll also get some water wetter (I saw some earlier posts). While I'm there, I'll get a new radiator cap...what pressure should I get?

What are the pluses/minuses of dropping the cats. I live on the border, and I know of a shop that will charge $20 to cut out the rear cats, and $20 to hollow out the front ones.

What's the difference between fenderwall induction and a factory airbox? I have a box mounted on the fenderwall near the alternator. There's an inlet in the fenderwall, under the filter. Which do I have? If I have an airbox, what and where is the air silencer?

I wanted to pick up the Cone k & n filter, because I heard it offered better performance. Am I wrong in this?

I really appreciate your help guys. I'm not necessarily looking for track times, but I do want to get the most that I can out of my car without destroying the mileage or reliability. It's my daily driver.

Too hot to handle
 

Falcons Talon

All good advice given so far.

Ditch that 160 stat for at least a 180 or a stock 192 and see what happens with the overheating problem.

The factory clutch fan is fine but make certain it's working properly. With the engine off, it should have resistance when you try to turn it. The fan tends to provide cooling at low speed or at idle so it's a very likely suspect.

While removing the cats is advisable for better performance, they're probably not the cause of running hot.

As already stated, you can remove the catalytic converters without the need for a chip.

had the same problems with a 160 stat, switched to 180, much better..


as far as performance, remove the air silencer!! the rest depends on the $$'s you wanna spend..

Gear change is a must!!

Definitely pluck that air filter silencer out of there. Its the first thing I did when I picked up my car. A 180 degree thermo would help your heat problem, but stop and go driving in traffic definitely heats up any stang, ive seen that on all 3 of the stangs ive owned. A good exhaust system is probably the most popular mod on these cars, great sound and better performance - John

By the way - Welcome to Mustangworks man!

Can you guys describe to me what the air filter silencer looks like and where it's located? I'm anxious to take y'alls advice. I already got the thermo and I'm gonna start dissecting her...You guys are great!

Allright, I got the air filter silencer out, put in the 180 thermo, flushed the cooling system, dropped in new 80/20 antifreeze mix w/ water wetter. I'll probably cut out the cats this Saturday. I would really like to get a conical K&N filter, but do I need to buy the air inlet arm assembly? Is there an application that fits the oem air inlet arm? I still need to advance the timing a bit, but I think I'll do that at dad's place this weekend.

A box K&N replacement is actually better than adding a conical filter to the end of the stock hose. The reason is because the air from the fenderwell is colder and denser than the air out of the engine compartment. Make sure there are no cracks or anything in your airbox if you decide to go this route. The box style filter costs about $40 to $50.

As for headers, I would go with equal lenghts. Just about any brand will work. It depends on what you want to spend.

FYI, you can buy an off road h pipe for about $100 plus shipping.

No cats and an aftermarket exhaust will give you excellent sound, if you like the rumbling sound of a V8.

A real boost on any 5.0 is putting in a set of gears. Since you want the best gas mileage you can get, I would reccomend the 3.55s. You can really feel the difference!

Hope this helps you out.

I've got a few questions regarding your engine running hot:

1) How are you determining that it's running hot? (Factory gauges are notoriously inaccurate, and the only way to get an honest temp reading is with an aftermarket gauge)

2) Does it ever "boil over"? (this is a sign of a weak radiator cap. a Stant pressure relief cap, with a red lever, rated at 16 psi, would be a good replacement)

3) When you said you "dropped in an 80/20 antifreeze mix", you did mean 80% water/20% coolant, right? (coolant actually retains heat, and a mixture containing more than 20% coolant will actually cause the system to run hotter)

4) Do you have the factory fan shroud installed?

Installing the 180 t-stat will certainly help, but I would have gone with an OEM 192 from Ford.

As far as your cats being clogged, this is easily checked with a vacuum gauge. There are two easy tests you can run to determine if your exhaust is restricted (cats clogged).

First test:
1) Attach vacuum gauge to manifold vacuum source.
2) Observe vacuum at idle.
3) Snap throttle to WOT and release, while watching the gauge.

The vacuum gauge should drop to almost zero when you hit WOT. When the throttle snaps closed immediately after, the vacuum should read 4" to 6" higher than what it did at idle. It should then settle back at the same reading it was at idle before the WOT snap. This whole exchange should go from idle reading to idle reading in 2-3 seconds, tops. If it takes longer for the gauge to return to the same idle reading, your exhaust is restricted. The longer it takes, the worse the restriction.

Second test:
1) Attach vacuum gauge to manifold vacuum source.
2) Warm up engine.
3) Observe vacuum at idle.
4) Leave engine idling for 10 minutes. Do not touch anything on the car during this time. In fact, go inside and fix some coffee.
5) After 10 minutes, observe the vacuum.

If the vacuum is the same or higher, you don't have any resctrictions. If the vacuum gauge has dropped, you do have a restriction. The more it drops, the greater the restriction. If it drops 1" or more, you have a serious restriction. 2" or more and you might as well have the exhaust welded shut. Keep in mind that a rich exhaust will clog up cats in a hurry.

Take care,
-Chris

Ieatcamaros,
I've been considering gears for the longest time. When I get the money, I'll change out to 3.55's. I've heard they are probably the way to go for my application, and since I don't plan to run it at the track, the app should be fine.

The box type filter is definitely less of a headache, since no shops around here stock any type of unversal k&n cones. Good call on the cooler air. That was going to be my next question. When I was taking off the box, the two top bolt were frozen, even after wd40, and I ended up tearing the screw of the rubber grommets. I'll probably bolt it down somewhere and cover the screwholes w/silicone.

I'll be keeping a lookout for offroad h-pipes. I plan on getting the cats cutout tomorrow or Saturday, and I'm looking to pick up a 48.5" belt and bypass the smog pump.

PKRWUD
Yes, I'm going by the factory gauge. The reason I think it's running hot is because it would be below the middle of the gauge on the highway. After a while in town, the gauge would inch up and eventually, the air con would cut out. I should get an aftermarket gauge...maybe today...
It hasn't boiled over, but I replaced the cap anyway. Why wait for it to go out.
The mix is 80 water 20 antifreeze. Have you guys ever seen the instructions on Prestone antifreeze? 70 coolant to 30 water for max protection???
Yes, I've got the shroud on. If I continue with heating problems, I may go to the 192 thermo.
Thanks for the steps on the cat check, but since I'm going to cut them out anyway, I won't be doing that.

FYI, I got a K&N filter (fits my 1989) when I converted to a 12" cone in the fender during the S-trim install.
If interested, gimme a shout at home: drudis@dariusrudis.com

Well, I just picked up my k&n flat filter, and I'm going to go and pick up an 84.5 s-belt to bypass the smog pump. There's a shop that will cut out my cats and fabricate an H-pipe for me for $60.00 Seems like a good deal to me. What diameter should he use? I'm assuming that he will run straight pipes from the gutted cats to the mufflers. What should the diameter of the cross pipe be as well.
Damn, these upgrades are going fast. Keep the tips coming guys...like I said, y'all are awesome!!!

Well, even though I have the flat k&n filter, I'll be asking for the 57-2502 later. Baby steps...

Youll want to use 2 1/2 inch pipe

Same size on the crossover pipe?

What do you mean by crossover pipe? The pice of pipe connecting both sides? If so then yes, same size on that piece.

Thank you NJ...yes, it was the pipe i was talking about. I'm not familiar with all the jargon yet...

No problem man. Actually im not quite sure what I would call it either, crossover pipe works for me. - John

Wanna know how to determine the best location for that pipe? Simple. Get a crayon and make a fairly thick line along the length of each of the exhaust pipes. Next, go for a hard drive around the block, and come back and check out the crayon marks. The temp of the exhaust inside the pipes will cause the crayon to burn at a specific spot on each of the pipes. The point where the crayon marks are burned is where the balance tube should be installed.

Take care,
-Chris

RED FLAG!!!

My temp is running higher now than normal...could it be the 80/20 mix? Should I go with straight distilled water and water wetter? I'm still running the factory gauge, but it registers hotter than when I had the 160 thermo in. I'm not questiong you guys' advice. I'm wondering if there could be something deeper to look at? No boil overs, but my car feels hot...the air con cut out a few times today. It heated up on the open road as well as the city. What am I missing...

Thanks for the crayon advice. Will the balance tube generally be in the same spot as the factory balance tube? Should I have the guy install the pipes, and then do the crayon thing, and then go back and add a balance tube later. I'm taking her in tomorrow, and I'm already very happy with the hop ups.

Just that damn temp!!!

No one has picked up on it yet, but some pulley systems will cause overheating. Did you have any overheating issues before the install of the pullies? Might be something worth looking into.

And as far as the 160 thermostat, I've always ran them and never had any issues.

It might also be time to do a compression check and see if the headgasket might have let go.

Jeez, I got the pulleys when I got my car in 92. It really just started heating pretty bad lately. It's the crank/water pump pulley w/ an alternator bracket. I ordered it from a place in Houston...I can't even remember the name of it. They said the app was the same for all 5.0 mustangs w/ S-belts. That stuck in my mind because I remember wondering if it would affect my old 84 like it would the 92. Was I duped?

If you've had the pullies on this long and it just started overheating, I doubt it's the pullies. Although if you have the time, I would replace the crank/water pump pulley with a factory one and just see what it does.

The car is 10 years old, maybe the water pump is going bad or like I stated earlier, a headgasket.

I assume that there are no leaks anywhere. Like 91gtturbo said, it could be the water pump. The way I check the water pump is to take the belt and fan off and spin the water pump pulley. If it does not spin pretty freely, the bearing in it is probably about to go. It will not spin and just keep spinning, but believe me you will know it if the bearing is bad. Did you ever check that fan clutch yet?

There aren't any paper wrappers, leaves, etc on the outside of the radiator are there?

Have you tried not running the a/c to see if it makes a difference? I know how hot it gets in Texas, but it is worth a try. We all know how hard it is to turn that damn compressor. LOL.

There aren't any visible leaks. What's really weird is that it's running hotter with the 180. Of course, as soon as I poor some cool water on the radiator, it drops back to where it was w/ the 160. I know I can always put the 160 back in, but I have a feeling that this isn't the heart of the problem. And yeah...it's getting damn hot down here...98 today...it's still spring for crying out loud!!!
The clutch offers good resistance cold.
I'm going to go look at the water pump again right now. Hopefully, this is it. Is it possible that something can be clogged?

O.k...water pump is fine...Last night after I logged off, I opened the flush out hose that I installed a while back and trickled water into it. It took some, I can't really tell how much. I was hoping that maybe there was an air pocket in the cooling system. This morning, as I drove her to work, she inched up the the halfway mark, but it didn't go over. That is with minimal city driving. This is a good thing because with the same conditions yesterday,she was 3/4 of the way to the top of the gauge...The true test will be this afternoon when I drive it in traffic in 100 degree tempatures...Hopefully by then I'll have no cats and straight h-pipes. rubbing hands. I've already bought the 84.5 inch belt and bypassed the smog pump.

Alright...i researched the pulleys and got some info on them...they are Auto Specialties pulleys out of Stafford Texas. They have a website. The Crank is 25% and the Water pump is 15%. I have the alternator bracket as well. Does that offer any insight to the heating problem? I'm going to call ford and ask about the 192 thermo.