Hot days-high temps

[66redcoupe]

Had overheating probs in traffic on a hot day (when stuck at lights etc) My 289 is newly recon at .030" oversize. I have a high flow thermostat, modified water pump with high flow impellor, a new 3 row radiator (not a genuine one, a fabricated one with a natrad dimpled core) that still uses the original radiators side brackets. A repro fan cowl and mounting brackets that made the cowl sit about 1/2 inch from the core. I have a 6 blade fan, original type. My car has air con, I believe it should have a 5 blade fan, but should not see any problems with my 6 blade. My fan cowl brackets I have had for a few years now, and have just discovered there are two different size brackets, one to suit a 2 row rad and one to suit a three row rad. As my radiator is a three row, utilising two row radiator side brackets, I have the wrong fan cowl brackets, making the cowl sit to far away from the radiator. So, I bought the shorter fan cowl mount brackets as well as the aftermarket fibre plastic cowl and fitted them.
Did have trouble with the fan to cowl clearance (at the bottom) so had to slot the mount brackets to lower the cowl about 5mm and no more probs. The fan/cowl combination definately moves more air through the radiator at low revs, and I have noticed a substantial difference at idle in traffic, though, there is still room for improvement. Thinking about a more efficient fan that will still fit within the confines of my cowl. Any ideas anyone?
My radiator guy swears by a viscous fan clutch and a commodore fan, but problem is, won't fit with either of my two cowls plus the blades foul the top radiator hose. Interested in hearing other fan ideas
Scott:-

[2233]

Can you please put some paragraphs in your next post. Its very hard to read.

About the cooling issue, how good/accurate is your gauge and sender?

[66redcoupe]

OK, sorry bout lack of paragraphs:o

Have not had gauge checked yet. Mmmm, perhaps if I placed sender in a sample of water with a known temp. Just need to get an accurate thermometer, or better still a laser temp gun.

Still regardless, the gauge certainly climbs in slow traffic. 1/2 is normal, even a little less when it is cooler, but when hot (35+) still runs on half or a smidgeon higher, and in slow traffic (lights etc) gets to about 3/4.
Does not boil or anything like that.  Today had the car at mustang west in perth to have my paint cut back, Salva there, sugested my fan was located too far back from the radiator. He swapped me a longer spacer, does not seem to have made a large difference though.

Anyhow, good idea to check gauge / sender. Will do that before getting to much more excited, thanks.

[charlie66]

I have been told that new motors generally will run hotter due to being still 'tight'. I've been toying with the idea of a thermo fan for mine although it only reaches 1/2 on a hot day in traffic.  Normally it sitting on 1/4....dont know how accurate the gauges are though...

[ron]

In my opinion, thermo fans on early normal cars work great but on the Mustang they suck. Had a 3 row,50% anti boil, half shroud and 16 inch plastic flex fan. This combo kept the temp guage constant  at a 1/4 in all traffic conditions.        Changed to a 16 inch Davies Craig and found that to keep it at 1/2 guage the fan was constantly running and only stopped during highway cruising. Don't know how much of a drain on the battery this causes.

[nassi]

Scott, I have the gear to test the temp sender, but I'm not sure what the actual temp is for the guage graduations. I ran some tests on the two cars I had and got different results. Hope to catch up with you on Sunday, we can work something out then.
nassi

[66redcoupe]

Good one Nassi
Talk to you sunday

[HEVEN67]

Its good to see that we are all having hot and bothered problems.Coud you tell me ,How wide is your radiator core?
As i am workin on a project to try to get a cost effective solution to all those with a 20" core.
I used a 17" plastic lightweight fan,it cost $45 from the auto shop.a custom aluminium cowling and it blows a  cyclone 'LARRY'.
I tried a 20" 3 core dimpled and it still gets hot at times it has 138 tubes but there is a replacement core coming out soon which will have 180+ tubes.I will keep all posted on how its going.

[cool66]

Had overheating problems myself with a 3 core radiator. The cause was the fan blades were too far from the radiator. Fixed this with quite a big thermo fan. Still looks OK and does the job.

I do agree with you guys not liking the look of thermo fans but we should be able to drive our beauty's in the heat.

My mechanic swears by custom aluminium radiators. He says they have an equivilant cooling capacity to a 10 core radiator.

Your other option is to chuck in an electric waterpump so it circulates water at IDLE. Also more horsepower with thermo's and electric water pumps.

[2233]

Does anybody here with heating problems, run aluminium heads?


I run a std factory 302w radiator(converted to 3 core) std 4 blade fan, no shroud.

On a hot day, lets say 40 deg, it would make it to about 82ish deg C at idle and around 75 cruising.

In winter, cruising temps are around 65 deg......which is too cold so I have block some of the radiator off to up the temp.

I am running a hotish stroker engine, which has more fuel evaporation issues than overheating issues on a very hot day.

My mechanical temp gauge is in fahrenheit so I quickly converted the figures above.

[cool66]

Hi Echo,

When I first fitted my Aluminium heads, the car started to overheat prior to fitting the thermo fans. Now the gauge doesn't go past half even on a 40 deg day. Sorry not sure of the degrees.
Cheers
Jeff