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tfofkyle

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
about 6 degrees last night around here. but the mustang was running just fine. after turning into a subdivision to take a phone call, i drove through and just as i made it to the next major road to turn out on, a puff of white starts to come up from the engine. temp gauge says its at the very top of the normal range. so i killed it and popped the hood. it spit a good amount of coolant out from the cap. otherwise i didnt see anywhere else the coolant came from. (i say this because ive been through 2 separate coolant hoses popping on me. as well as the coolant crossover cracking on me :rolleyes:)

i had to do a new radiator (oem) when i bought the car. did the water pump too just for peace of mind (also oem) and just did the coolant before she went away for the winter. she also has a new oem fan and a new oem tstat.

shes ran hot ever since the day i bought her. apparently 96 gt's and cobra's have some serious cooling problems. besides getting a nicer radiator (i was thinking mishimoto), anyone have any ideas? i really dont want to have to deal with this problem again. also, even though ive flushed it a good 3 or 4 times, the coolant somehow always looks filthy. and i dont mean like a slightly dirty green, but a full on mucky brown. i towed the thing home and left it in the driveway. just didnt feel like dealing with it. any input is awesome.
 
#4 ·
Maybe you have a bad thermostat? Have you tried replacing that?


Idk random guess but maybe its not allowing flow until the car is way to hot. Try replacing it with a new one or a lower temp one.
Sounds like that might be your problem
 
Discussion starter · #7 ·
NO_PI_NO_POWER said:
Part the problem with them was the fan shroud right? Also, I know when I put a pi manifold on with npi heads, and ran hose in the valley, instead of the correct tube, mine ran on the warm side.
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yes the fan shroud i heard was one thing, another being that the radiator itself is about as thick as kindergarten level book (no joke - this thing looks like it couldnt cool my old saturn - let alone a v8) i still havent gotten around to swapping my intake to a PI one yet. im running the dorman npi with the aluminum crossover right now. but it ran fine up until last night. im still running around with the oil burning like crazy from my fried valve stem seals. could that be leading to some overheating issues?
 
Discussion starter · #8 ·
sharkbait said:
Maybe you have a bad thermostat? Have you tried replacing that?


Idk random guess but maybe its not allowing flow until the car is way to hot. Try replacing it with a new one or a lower temp one.
Sounds like that might be your problem
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i went with a stock replacement. i believe oem was like 190-something. so i expected it to be slightly warm. but last night seemed borderline blown head gasket. especially weird because i was pretty much idling in 2nd gear when all of a sudden it went POOF. oh, and to top it off my phone died while calling in a tow truck. thank god i was just down the street from my moms house
 
#9 ·
Damn thats a bad day lol.

Not sure if it's in anyway related but I know when my heater core was going bad I was driving home and the car was running a little on the warm side, when I parked though a ton of steam was coming out of one of my heat vents. I popped the hood and didn't see anything unusual so I had the heater core changed out annd it never acted up again.
 
Discussion starter · #10 ·
98FireyGT said:
Damn thats a bad day lol.

Not sure if it's in anyway related but I know when my heater core was going bad I was driving home and the car was running a little on the warm side, when I parked though a ton of steam was coming out of one of my heat vents. I popped the hood and didn't see anything unusual so I had the heater core changed out annd it never acted up again.
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this is what i think may be the problem. especially with my nasty coolant all the time. its obviously getting choked up somewhere in the system. otherwise it wouldnt be running warm all the time.
 
#11 ·
Take a look at the carpet under the dash, make sure to feel around too, if you've got any greasy/wet spots it's a safe bet you need a heater core. Mine leaked all over the place and trashed my carpet. :(
 
#12 ·
OEM is like 195 i beleive.

Well look around and see if you can find a cooler one. Maybe that can help bandaid the problem.

My car runs really cool. Its normal temp is on the right side of the "N" in "Normal".

Maybe you could replace the sensor and get a better reading?
 
#13 ·
I know this is kinda obvious, but is the fan kicking on properly? I only ask this because my fan went bad, and it would get hot even gong down the road, unless I was doing 60+ mph.

If the fan is not kicking on, it will overheat driving around town, even if it is 5 deg. outside.


ps. my car is a 96 gt also
 
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Discussion starter · #14 ·
boostforfun said:
I know this is kinda obvious, but is the fan kicking on properly? I only ask this because my fan went bad, and it would get hot even gong down the road, unless I was doing 60+ mph.

If the fan is not kicking on, it will overheat driving around town, even if it is 5 deg. outside.


ps. my car is a 96 gt also
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ill check it tonight when i get off work. but it is a brand new oem fan that i have on there. and it was kicking on last time i checked it out in the fall.
 
Discussion starter · #15 ·
sharkbait said:
OEM is like 195 i beleive.

Well look around and see if you can find a cooler one. Maybe that can help bandaid the problem.

My car runs really cool. Its normal temp is on the right side of the "N" in "Normal".

Maybe you could replace the sensor and get a better reading?
Click to expand...
thatd be great if i could get it running around there. ill try the 180 degree tstat first i think. currently normal city driving temp in ~70 degree weather is always above half. lately its almost been hitting the "A" in "normal". all of the heat is killing off my power as well. she can roast off 2nd from a roll when shes just barely in the normal temp range (thank you 4.10's!), otherwise shes a snail and can barely spin them properly even if i dump the clutch in 1st.
 
Discussion starter · #17 ·
put some oil in her today (she was about a half quart low) and filled up the coolant. seemed to be doing okay. fan kicked on all right. and the tstat was working as it should. she sat around the halfway mark for about an hour of idling and city driving. i was surprised how much coolant she lost. (almost a whole container). definitely going to go to the 180* tstat and mishimoto radiator once i have some cash. she smells like a 2 stroke though from all the oil burn.

will2045 said:
i also have a 96 GT i havent had any problems over heating yet but i havent driven it that much although it does run around the R in normal. what is the business with the fan shroud?
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supposedly they were too small for the engine. im not aware of any specific replacements.
 
#18 ·
oh okay. WHOA wait it burnt through a whole container of coolant? or oil? either one wow if your leaking oil that bad thats bad... and if your going through that much coolant sell that bitch asap or start watching for new heads/motor....

btw our cars look like twins excpet yours has nicer wheels and mine runs better lol
 
Discussion starter · #19 ·
will2045 said:
oh okay. WHOA wait it burnt through a whole container of coolant? or oil? either one wow if your leaking oil that bad thats bad... and if your going through that much coolant sell that bitch asap or start watching for new heads/motor....

btw our cars look like twins excpet yours has nicer wheels and mine runs better lol
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it spit out almost a full jug of 50/50 when it overheated, and burned about a half quart since i changed the oil last (2k miles maybe) i have a set of NPI heads with a fresh valve job and PI cams waiting to be installed. waiting for the head changing kit to ship, and cash for the PI intake. also a set of long tube headers waiting to go on. my car has about 100k miles on it though, and i can be hard on her at times. its very common for the 95 (lincolns) and 96 4.6's to burn oil through the valve stem seals at around 100k, no matter how hard theyve been driven. 97-up heads i believe had better valve stem seals to remedy the problem.

i like the split spokes on your car. is yours opal frost as well? (paint code WJ i believe) and id wager my car might just be a lil bit faster than yours, even with the oil burn :p
 
#20 ·
tfofkyle said:
it spit out almost a full jug of 50/50 when it overheated, and burned about a half quart since i changed the oil last (2k miles maybe) i have a set of NPI heads with a fresh valve job and PI cams waiting to be installed. waiting for the head changing kit to ship, and cash for the PI intake. also a set of long tube headers waiting to go on. my car has about 100k miles on it though, and i can be hard on her at times. its very common for the 95 (lincolns) and 96 4.6's to burn oil through the valve stem seals at around 100k, no matter how hard theyve been driven. 97-up heads i believe had better valve stem seals to remedy the problem.

i like the split spokes on your car. is yours opal frost as well? (paint code WJ i believe) and id wager my car might just be a lil bit faster than yours, even with the oil burn :p
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I had a bronco 2 with a 5.0 conversion that did the exact same thing it would over heat and push coolant out the over flow but that was on summer days when it was lke 90 out. hmm yours is bad i would drive it as little as possible and mine was a cracked head.
yeah if you got that layin around i would do that when your kit gets in just dont hurt anything else by getting it to hott till then. and i got some goodies in the mail so this summer we'll have to get together and find out. where do you drag at in Mi?
 
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tfofkyle
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