88_Import_Slaye

Ok, i've built up my car from scratch basically. I gutted the car entirely. I built up a 310 and i'm having some cooling issues. I wanted to make sure I'm not missing something here. I have a modine aluminum radiator with a 160-180 thermastat (cant remember which) and a stock replacment water pump. No heater core, nothing extra, goes from the rad, to the w/p back to the rad. Is there something I should have that I dont? is there some function i'm missing? The car will run and the temp gauge will steadily rise quickly to the top of the gauge. Of course, I dont let it get too high before I turn it off.

Is it possible my thermostat isnt opening? it's brand new. Should I look into a new thermostat maybe a 190? The radiator gets hot and the hoses are hot, so it seems like the coolant is flowing through the system.

Ideas?

Forshock 85TA

Test the thermo.

One thing i had to do with my car overheating. The heater core was bypassed by previous owner and would get to 240 all the time. I replaced the core and new hoses, now stays at 200 or so

88_Import_Slaye

is it possible that I have thermo upside down?

Forshock 85TA

anything is possible. Most thermostats have arrow pointing the flow.

Also: Timing should be checked too.

Edit: Brain fart

88_Import_Slaye

timing is set to 15 base


Ok, so the water flow out of the pump to the bottom of the radiator, the from the top of the radiator to the manifold where the thermo is. is that correct? it doesnt seem right to me for some reason, unless the water sitting in the manifold opens the thermo then lets the cooler water in...

Forshock 85TA

Flow goes

Rad > Pump > Block (Heater Core) > Manifold > Rad

88_Import_Slaye

Is the water pushed or pulled by the pump? the way you describe it makes it sound as if the water goes into the radiator from the top and travels down to the bottom, shouldnt it flow from the bottom to the top?

88_Import_Slaye

holy crap your from victorville cali?! I lived there for a long while and in hesperia. Sorry, that's off topic, but it's cool.

Forshock 85TA

Smallworld eh?

It enters at the top of the radiator and goes down to the bottom to go back into the motor. Hot air rises, why should water. Hopefully the water at the bottom is cooler then at the top.

88_Import_Slaye

sent you a PM.

Well, I will pull the thermo out and check it, maybe I have crud blocking it, I didnt flush the rad b4 I installed it. I was always told that water travels from the bottom to the top to help give it enough time to draw heat away.

iceman02

iTrader: (1)

Something you may want to do before you reinstall the thermostat is to drill 2 small holes in it to let any air trapped in the system to pass through. Also, it is not uncommon for people to use too much RTV on the thermostat. If you have too much, when you tighten it down, it can squeeze out on the inside and then you're left with a glob of dried RTV in the cooling system.

88_Import_Slaye

My friend suggested the same thing, he had to do that on his fox body (aparently it's a common ford thing). I didnt use rtv, I used that sticky gasket that came with it, but I will drill the holes anyway.

88_Import_Slaye

seems like the problem is fixed. I took out the thermo and I checked it, was clean and it opened as it should. I also had it in correctly. I drilled two small holes one on each side then I put it back in and put the system back together. As a test, I started the car with the rad cap off. When the motor ran, the fluid level went WAY down, it seems that when we did the initial setup of the cooling system, we forgot to add more coolant to compensate for the drain. I knew it would do this because the rest of the motor had to be filled with coolant, but we just forgot to filli t back up. So I did that and have it at the proper level now.

I ran the motor without the fan, it slowly rose to after 220, then almost instantly went back down to the marker between 100 and 220 and stayed there. I reved the motor to heat it up and it rose back to around 220, and stayed there for a bit, very slowly creeping higher. I turned the fan on and BANG! went back to just below the 220 marker and stayed there.

I think there is a serious difference in my gauge and the actual temp of the motor. I have 180* thermo and the gauge said it was above 220 when it started to go back down. Maybe it was just the delay in coolant flow? I'll have to find a scanner to find out what the difference is.

All is well now. I just need to figure out my radiator shroud problem and it should stay even cooler with the fan on.

iceman02

iTrader: (1)

The previous owner of my car had been chasing a cooling problem since he had bought it. I took the rad out and cleaned the crap from the fins, put it back in and it had minimal effect. Later, when I was datalogging for an unrelated problem, I noticed my temp gauge reads about 20* hotter than what my datalogging shows. Probably bad gauge.
What kind of shroud do you have? The stock setup doesn't have one.

88_Import_Slaye

I have a platic hold down for the rad and the top of the fan. IT's my electric setup from the V6. I have a fox body shroud that I can modify to work. My bigest prob is going to be mounting the radiator so it's sturdy. I dont have orig brackets, nor do I have a condenser