The car was down for 2 months, we had to fix a broken rocker stud. Installed a valve girdle and changed in the intake gasket while I was at it since it was leaking. Now that I'm driving it during the daytime it overheats during street driving. It's ok on the freeway. It's about 200 freeway driving, goes up slowly to 210 on the street and keeps creeping up. Yesterday I barely got to work right at 219 and there was already a little coolant splatter on the inside of my hood. I parked it and let it run under the sun, I was right at 212-214 and wasn't really going up, as soon as I started driving it around I was at 218 and very slowly creeping up. Coolant is filled No leaks anywhere Timing was set properly The intake gasket was properly installed with no passageways blocked The engine is a low compression 331 Aluminum radiator Electric fan that kicks in at 185 and runs the whole time (I confirmed)
sticky thermostat work the one you have and put it in some hot water to verify operating temps.. or swap in another 160-180 and you should be good to go again
I don't know if this means anything but when I first start driving the car the temp usually goes to 202 then when the thermostat opens it drops to 195 rapidly and kinda stays there for some time and slowly creeps up to 200....could it still be the thermostat?
Id be quite happy if any of my cars ran at 219 for a high. that isnt quite overheating to me. maybe you just need a overflow bottle on the radiator. I deliver pizza in my 93 Mustang 5.0 with A/C on in 110 degree heat, its constantly around 230, lol.
Is the radiator cap pressure rating sufficient for the thermostat? Was there an inch or two of air space or did you fill the radiator to the top when you refilled it? I would install a new radiator cap and an overflow bottle.
I have an overflow bottle I'll go get a new radiator cap today, current one is 11psi I have a 50/50 mixture in there right now the water level covers the fins but it's up to the very top
I run a 16 psi cap. the higher the PSI the Higher the boiling point of the water. new cars run 20 psi or more somtimes. 11 is even below stock which had to be atleast 13 if not 16, i forget.
Yea we are in the 90's here. My main concern is that the engine doesn't get damaged and that I don't start spewing coolant everywhere. I just got a new cap. I'll consider the thermostat next.
^hahaha 90's is a heat wave 104 today 106 tomorrow here! May sound like a stupid question but is your fan blowing the correct way its a common mix up.I daily drove my mav with the 11:1 347 on 91oct timing locked out at 36* for almost a year never got over 190* but i have an aluminum rad,leectric water pump and twin 16" fans(1 pull 1 push). and that summer we had days it was 111* and had no problems sitting in traffic for 15 minutes on my way home from work.
Yea I checked that, it is pulling air from outside through towards the engine. So it's pulling I guess.
You got any pictures of that twin setup? I wud like to see how u got the puller installed, a 16" at that.