There's your problem. You need a full shroud and I'd suggest an electric fan. You might try one from a Focus. Pretty good setup from what I hear.
Gotta have a shroud! Your fan just swirls air around in the engine bay if you don't have it focused on pulling air through the radiator... on a 195 stat running an engine at 170! If the stat works, the gauge is wrong. If the gauge works, the stat doesn't. Better look into that. Dave
i didnt read everyone's repsonse.. but this is what i did 1. Remove Stat and check it... put in a pot of water on the stove and run it up.. checking with a meat thermometer. 2. I put in a 4-row radiator from www.raditators.com 67 mustang radiator.. or anything with the correct size to fit 3. put in a 17" flex fan and got it as close to the radtiator as possible 4. Put on an OEM fan shroud 5. made sure the mixture was more water than antifreeze, since antifreeze keeps the water warmer so it wont freeze.. 6. i actually had my head gaskets on backwards in the very very beginning. make sure that the head gaskets have the front and up markings on correctly. if you havent messed with the head gaskets lately. then this is probably not the problem 7. make sure you dont have a leaking head gasket that is allowing hot exhaust gases into the cooling system,
3 or more core radiator shroud if you can find one if not a larger fan that is not a flex if it is over heating when you are driving if it dose overheat while stoped then you can run a flex electric is the way to go if all of these dont work add fuel to the the air fuel mix and advance timeing one or two degrees that has worked for me in the past on fords and other no not other just fords because the others were just p.o.s. race cars that bo tie did the trick on putting those in the grave so not the race car is a ford the owner now sees the light.
it restricts the water flow, by keeping the water in the radiator longer the better it cools. no thermostat the water just rushers by without time to dissipatate heat !! that leads to thermo-runnaway !! I will list some things to check; 1- insuficient coolant(small radiator,wrong mixture,...) 2- water pump V-belt slipping 3- clogged radiator 4- thermostat defective or missing 5- wrong fan for the application 6- radiator cap not holding pressure 7- incorrect ignition timing 8- bad/or improperly installed cylinder head gasket 9- restricted flow in engine block( silicon sealant,rust, innadequent use of block sealants,old radiator hoses that collasp,ect...) 10- bad water pump 11- bad water temperture gage or sending unit 12- lean idle mixter
sir you are 100% correct !! just misread the question !! the mayority of cars run better with t-stats, when there are no mayor issues with the cooling system
maverick5.0...where in Puerto Rico are you? I was out there a couple years back, and was amazed at how many Mavericks I saw (compared to the mainland states).
Dan, there is one way it will run colder, you missed my reply? i actually have to cover the radiator on my truck on some icy days. theres a 180 tstat in it and by the time im at work it will chill back down to 160. i dont even live in alaska.
How could that be with a working thermostat? Either it was opening early, stuck open or had some sort of bypass letting water through without the thermostat opening ...
i think its the pile of snow building up on the block as i drive of course that is an old thick cast big block as well, not a 302
