horchoha wrote:
Thanks Lonnie
Story time : the last day and a half have tested my mechanical trouble shooting skills. Problem: after 10-15 miles the temp starts to climb, after 30 miles the gauge climbs into the red zone. The first 5-10 miles the temp gauge climbs to the middle, that's where it should sit. Then over the next 15-20 miles it slowly climbs, if I were driving around town it would not overheat. The rad is new, spec'd for a 1968 Mustang 5.0L (302cid), thought that should work. Checked the 195* thermostat, opens when heated up - OK, checked timing - base set at 10*BTDC - OK. Had a tractor fan on the back side of the rad and then installed a pusher in the front of the rad with a fan shroud, still heats up. Using 2 fans, lots of air going through the rad core. Pulled the bottom rad hose and installed a spring in it in case it was collapsing, still heats up. Ambient temp during the test drives was about 18C (65F).
Talked to a couple of other mech friends. If head gasket was leaking it should blow coolant before it overheats, it could also use coolant. I've had this happen to me before and this doesn't appear to be the problem. One mech said plugged rad and I said that's what I thought except this is a new rad. One thing I did notice was some white crud around the tubes that I could see through the filler cap when I first received the rad. The new rad is a copper 2 row core, I'm thinking it may not have the capacity the newer 5.0L high output needs, plus it may be partially plugged. That's why it takes so long for the car to overheat.
So I've ordered an aluminum 4 row core rad of the same size. Some manufacturers state that aluminum rads cool way more efficiently than the old copper core rads.
So the build isn't finished until the bugs are worked out, that's my rule.
On the bright side I did put on about a hundred miles on the car and it is one sweet ride.
This is one seriously nice car Perry
Going thicker on rad cores does not always improve cooling unless there is some serious air flow which inevitably canes the charging system , Sometimes a two core with reasonable airflow and one fan will get the job done. Every bit of air that enters the nose cone needs to be channeled through the rad cores so for fear of telling grandma how to suck eggs it may pay to stuff all the tiny air gaps between the nosecone and rad.
Bob