Overheating problem continues
 

I've been having trouble keeping my engine cool during long idles or in-town cruising. It gets as high as 220* during those time but cools back down to 180-190 on the highway.
I have a 4 core radiator that was recently hot-tanked at a repair shop so I know that's not the problem now.
I'm running a flex fan with a shroud, a 25/75 coolant/water mix and a 20oz bottle of REDLINE water-wetter.
I have a 180* thermostat and 13lb radiator cap.

Now, to add to the equation, I believe I might have a lean condition. I'm not positive yet.
Should I replace the cap & thermostat just for the sake of it?
Is it possible that my engine NEEDS an electric fan now or is it because I "might" have a lean condition?

I'm still running the stock fuel pump(maybe I'll have it ported and polished)..............private joke from another thread:D
I'm just kidding tireburner. I had to say that...;)

If it's overheating going down the highway it's your radaiotor, obviously this is not your problem.

If it overheats in town or at idle it's your fan. You need a bigger fan. I'd suggest you upgrade to a Lincon Mark 8 fan, a Taraus fan, or a SN95 fan. IMO that should cure your overheating problem


-Josh, aka the tireburner

p.s. The joke seemed pretty obscure and I still don't get it, if you hadn't mentioned my SN I would have had no clue what you were talking about:confused:. Come on, you can do better than that.

I'm referring to that thread about PORTING E7 HEADS and the remark you made(and others I should mention) about spending money on STOCK heads.........
I was just joking that since my fuel pump is still stock then maybe I''ll port & polish it instead of buying a new one.
I only mentioned the fuel pump becacause I thought maybe it would be causing a lean condition by not pumping enough fuel that's causing overheatiing.
For the record, I understand your explaination in that last thread and I agree that aluminum heads are better than ported stock ones but I was too impatient to save more money for new aluminum heads.

Just pick up a new fuel pump. I'd suggest a Summit 140gph pump. It comes with a regulator, flows massive amounts of fuel, and is cheap to boot. I think they're like $109


Although I don't think that's your problem. I think it's your fan.




-Josh, aka the tireburner

FLEX FANS SUCK!!! either go electric or go stock. definetly a fan issue. as for lean, go for the bbk 255lph... the more the better. then your set for whatever mods you might want to do. going in the tank once beats going in there a few times. oh yea get a fuel pressure gauge and adj. regulator. best investments.

This is my 82GT I'm referring to so I'll need a machanial fuel pump.
Sorry, I should have said that in the beginning.
Either that or go with an external electric pump & regulator.

The thing is....I didn't have overheating issues before I rebuilt the engine. Now that it has more mods, I have overheating issues.
I was thinking since it's bored .060 that the cylinder walls are pretty thin now. That's why Chevy 400's always ran hot...........because their cylinder walls are really thin.
I have a bid going on Ebay for a Taurus electric fan. I've heard that they are excellent fans and the Lincoln fans as well.

again, the flex fans are horrible and are directional by the way.. you could have gotten the wrong direction rotation. make sure that is correct first. also check the timing as well.. but i would go with the stock fan and see what happens.. i'm sure it will solve it.

It can't be the wrong direction because I got that fan from another guy who ran it on his mustang and didn't have any problems. He went electric so he gave it to me.
My timing is set at 10*BTDC. It was about 12* but I backed it down already thinking maybe that was it.
Like I said before...I had the problem with the stock fan too(after the rebuild).
What about my cap..is 13lbs enough?

Hey 82. You have a very similar combo to mine. I have had overheating issues as well. My 351 is bored .040. I didn't think to look at what compression ratio you had, but I have 10.0 to 1 pistons in mine. I had a flex fan, stock mustang fan and now have a 16" autozone special electric fan. It cost me $75.00 and well worth it. I have a 2 core aluminum radiator (1" tubes) and I am using my fan as a pusher, not a puller. Some people will argue that a puller is better, but I like my fan out of the damn way. I have had it on both ways and it made no difference in running temp. I have a 180 stat and my car runs about 190 on a 90* day with high humidity. It will climb to 200 or 210, if I do a lot of errands at the hottest part of the day. When I am on the highway, I don't even turn the fan on. It runs at about 185 like that.

Is that(electric fan) what cured your problem?
My compression ratio is around 10:1 also. Nothing seems to work for me. I figured my 4 core radiator should have been able to handle just about anything. I guess I was wrong.

You say Autozone has 16in. electric fans? I would have never guessed that they carried stuff like that.

I just pm'd you. Your radiator is plenty big. Autozone carries universal electric fans. They have 10, 12, 14 and 16" fans. I thought about getting two 10's and put on it, but I did some measuring and it wasn't going to be easy. I figured if the 16 didn't cut it, I had some real issues anyway. I got the same fan on my 302 car and it cools like a dream, with the stock radiator.

flex fan
 

dude thanks for the advice on the heads, here's my return favor. not to sound redundant, i had a 90 gt with a 306. i had a 512 lift cam heads and intake. one day i was screwing around with my buddy and put the stock fan threw the 3 core rad. i put a advance auto 3 core in it and a flex fan along with underdrives, i had trashed the pulleys too. i had a nightmare of a time getting it to cool down, and i went threw 3 stats, switch the direction of the flex fan but same thing just kept overheating. finally i went up to harry's u break 'em and pulled a stock fan off an 86 lsc lincoln. now this wasn't power savvy, and i couldn't get a shroud to fit, but it never ran hot again. if your willing to give up a couple horse i'd pick up a lincoln fan at harry's. if i recall you are the local guy. thats my .02 at least.

I do not really see it being a too lean issue due to the fuel pump, I would think that would be a jetting problem.

As tireburner said, since the Radiator is cleaned, u can probably rule that out. I agree that it is probably the fan. If u decide to go the Tauras Fan route, I will be finally installing mine next week. Since my car goes to a lot of cruise-ins and the Tauras shroud was too big, I had a different shroud built for mine. I bought the fan from a local junkyard for 20-25 bucks. Here is the artical I am using as a reference piece: http://www.fordmuscle.com/archives/2...an/index.shtml

AutoZone carries most of the other parts used in this article. Hope this helps.
Ryan

Re: flex fan
 

Yeah, I'm the local guy from Danville. Anythow, I have a bid going on a taurus fan on Ebay that ends in a few days. If I get outbid then I'll go to autozone and buy a new 16in. fan.
I'm sick of this problem so...screw it...I'll get an electric fan and be done with it!

Just an FYI directed at an earlier post in this thread: retarding the timing causes overall engine temperature to INCREASE; conversely, advancing the timing will DECREASE engine temperature.

I'm thinking that mebbe since the overheating problems occurred after the rebuild, could there be a few clearance issues? Maybe the piston and ring fit is too tight? Bearing clearances? I'm just throwing in a few ideas here, take 'em or leave 'em. ;) But yeah, a lean engine will absolutely run HOT. That's why there's a mixture control on most personal aircraft. If the pilot's engine is running too hot, he'll richen the mixture. Simple.

Oh, and yes ditch the flexfan. Those are jUNk. You're better off with a clutch fan as it moves more air and is less prone to spontaneous explosions on long trips.

capri306 , Are there other ways to check a lean condition besides the plugs? Would there be other symptoms besides running hot?
A lot of people are telling me that my 625cfm carb. is still enough carb. for my setup.
I've seen 302's with less mods as I do running 750 holleys and I'm being told that a 625 Carter is plenty for a "worked" 351w???

My primary jets sizes are .098
My secondary jets are: .095
My metering rods dimensions are: .0700/.0470(primary jets)
Carter carbs have no secondary metering rods.

rwhite65, I mentioed maybe the fuel pump being a factor thinking that maybe since it' a stock pump that maybe it's not pumping enough volume of fuel anymore.
If I get an electric fan and it ends up I indeed have a lean condition, will I still overheat in town like I am now?

Well, It could still over heat if it was lean with the electric fan. I think the fan is a good place to start, unless u do not want to have an electric fan. I would start with the fan, since the car cools down once u take it out onto a highway and get air moving thru it.
Ryan

Well, reading the plugs has worked well in *most* situations for me. However, to know for sure I would find an exhaust shop with an infrared exhaust gas analyzer and see if they would help out. Of course, that would only do you good at idle. As far as the jets go, I'm no longer in the "carb loop," so to speak. I don't think you're going to hurt anything going a couple steps up in jet size, though. At least, to find out for sure.

Did you say exhaust shop or did you mean ask someone from engineering on the starship Enterprise because I've never heard of such a device............:confused: :D

82gt was talking about a taurus fan. I went to the local junk yard and he had a 30 of them $45. I think I could have talked him down but he was a 7ft 350lb twisted sister looking dude, so I took my fan and left. Thanks for the info. I guess lincoln mark 8's,merc sable/taurus90-96, lincoln cont90-94.