Its been over a year and I have been trying to get my 302 in my Maverick to run a little cooler while idling for extended periods in the garage or in traffic as it gets a little too warm for my comfort. I replaced the heads almost 2 years ago for a better set. Has anyone ever put the gaskets on backwards? What are the symptoms? Does it get hot gradually and under certain conditions or does it over heat every time you ran it? I can run it up and down the highway in eighty degree weather and it works fine -- never gets over 185-195. In the winter I hardy ever run it but it does well even idling?? In the summer/spring As soon as I stop in traffic for extended periods, let it idle in the gargage while tuning, or it gets hotter than 95-100 outside I start to get too warm for my comfort. I am very particular about engine assembly and knew that they had to go on right but maybe I was sidetracked when I set the new trick flow heads on there but I would hate to pull it all and find out that is was all together right. Any opinions or experieces with a gasket set put on backwards?? Thanks
i would think that the engine would heat up even faster if the head gaskets were wrong. i think you may have a thermostat or radiator cap problem. have the cap checked to see if it holds pressure. that's made a big difference on a car i once had.
if all your parts are good then it stands to reason that in traffic or standing still for extended periods it is going to run hotter or over heat because there is no air moving through the radiator to cool the coolant in the radiator,you could install an auxillary electric fan in front of radiator and switch it or put a sensor on it when you are in these situations. good luck.
Have you ever watched the coolant flow thru your radiator?. Sounds like your radiator may be clogging or the impellers may be gone off the waterpump (I've actually seen this as strange as it sounds). Very carefully let it run with the cap off and you should be able to tell when the thermostat opens, you can watch the coolant in the radiator and tell if your getting a good flow by manually revving it a little. (USE CAUTION) I would have to agree with the others that if it was the head gaskets it wouldn't matter if you were cruising or sitting..Just my opinion.. hope this helps and Good luck...Jerry
Mine used to do that. Put a fan shroud on it, and it solved the problem. Do you have a shroud or not? If not, it is a good thing to try. Cooled mine right down.
Thanks for all your input. I am not sure how to resolve it, I guess I will have to just live with it now. I would have thought even though the car is modified a bit that my newest radiator would cover it?? Maybe back my timimg down a little might help It always ran a little warm on those real warm days but the problem seemed to get worse when I went to alunimum heads, headers, and a little larger cam 2 years ago so I figured the radiator was just not enough plus the extra header heat. I am on my 3rd radiator and not as bad but still have the problem. To help answer your questions currently I have: A new 180 Mr. Gasket Thermostat --The cap is several years old 13psi might be getting old? Two year old hi performance water pump supposed to flow 30% more. TrickFlow twisted wedge heads -- had to drill my block to fit them-- followed the trick flow instructions 3in aftermarket fan shroud Seperate Tranny cooler Direct Drive Flex fan Ceramic Coated Headers This year I added a Griffen radiator that is supposed to handle up to 600hp Since I assumed that this rad would get the problem and I had a high output water pump I added march underdrive pulleys which probably don't help heat but I though the radiator would offset that but the same problem still persist. I run the timimg a bit high but don't detonate with some good gas but maybe if I pull that back a bit I also might have to loose the under drive pulleys but I have seen bigger more radical combos stay cool --
Sounds like you have everything in order, Are you reading the temp off a guage or what? Electrical guage or mechanical? Is it puking coolant? How hot does it get? Where is your temperature sender mounted? In the intake or the thermostat housing? Just Throwing out ideas...(rambling in my head)
As a general rule, if you overheat going down the road, you have a coolant flow problem. If you overheat sitting still, you have an airflow problem. With that in mind, I think better shroud or a booster fan might be your answer. You said you have an aftermarket fan shroud. Does the fan come really close to the edges of the shroud? Is the fan at the proper depth into the shroud? If you have too big a gap from the edge of the fan blades circumference to the shroud, or the fan is too deep or shallow in the shroud, quite often you will be creating swirl or turbulance, and the assembly won't work efficiantly,
I did have a cheap 160 degree thermostat in there last year but got a better quality one but went with the 180. I think I will eventually go back to a 160 this summer so I have a better running start to fight the heat-- there is no reason I cannot use 160 I just tried the 180 because someone I know had a theory that I was moving the fluid through too fast?? I have not yet tried the 160 with this radiator. I have not got to test the new radiator in the extreme heat but with the old factory Heavy Duty AC one I would never over heat with the car moving although when the temps got close to 100 outside it would do a slow climb but usually never topped 210 moving. The last radiator I had which was a factory style AC version I did have an auxillary pusher fan in addition to the direct drive but still would start to top 220 sitting in traffic. My fan is about 1.5 to 2 inches from the radiator. The fan is about 1.5 inches into the shroud. The shroud does not wrap totally around the fan -- it only covers the top half. Maybe a factory style shroud would do better?? I am using a mechanical gauage. It is in the front port in the intake. I have a overflow container setup so unless that is too full it recovers any expelled fluid. I have not really got to test this setup too well yet. I just know when I got the car together this spring I fired it up in the garage to set the floats on a new carb and to tune. I got everything set and stepped inside for about 3 minutes the car had been running for about 20 - 30 minutes total. I looked inside and the gauage was at 220. I jumped in and backed it out thinking it was getting heat soaked because of the garage and no moving air with the front end close to the wall. Well outside in the fresh air with the hood up it continued to climb. I was not ready to go out on the street yet so I closed the hood and stepped on the throttle to get it up to 2000 RPM for about a minute -- it seemed to balance at 210. I again walked away leaving it idle outside in 75 degree weather for a minute came back and it was now topping 230-- I shut it down-- It did this exact same thing the year before with the factory style radiator except the car never ever had topped 220. I like the temp at 180 - 195. I start to panic at 220 and freak above 230.
Here's my , some has already been said....If you dont have a pressure tester, put a new cap on for sure. Id also put a new thermostat in. Make sure water is actually flowing out of that top hose when the thermostat is open. If no problems found, back track, something that was changed for the positive is most likely causing the negative reaction. Only you know you car and what has been changed, try the easiest things first, (flow, timing, lean condition, guage,radiator, water pump direction, etc), and at last resort pull the heads, I ve been told more than once that back in the day it was a common thing to put Ford V8 head gaskets on backwards on one side blocking the water passages, because they werent marked well, but as far as i know most of them are marked better now. Good luck!!!
