[87stang460]

I,ve got an 87 mustang with a 460 engine.I,m having overheating probs(215-220 degrees)_ I have a four row radiator,kooler flow brand water pump and a 160 degree thermostat. 12.1 compression ratio also hooker super comp full length headers, 850 holley the list gos on. also running two flexalite electric fans push pull config, might anyone have an idea on how to cool it?

 

[Dinosaur]

I have a 460 in a 73 Mach1 and know your pain in trying to cool these things. I am assuming your cooling troubles are when idling or slow speed? thats where I had grief. I tried a couple different arrangements with electric fans to no avail.
Finally went with a mid-late 70's vintage 5 blade Ford OEM flex fan. These have a steep blade pitch and I use it in conjunction with a full shroud. It will run at about 180-190 at idle and a steady 180 going down the road. I too have a 4 row radiator & 160 thermostat.
With elec. fan setup I was running 220 idling. I cannot recommend any aftermarket flex fans, most don't hold a candle (cooling-wise) to those Ford ones. If you need a little more clearance between the w.p. pulley and the rad, a water pump for a 1969 T-bird 429 application will buy you about 1/2-3/4 inch over the typical 460 pump.
Rick

 

[Bossman]

First thing you should do is ditch that 160 thermostat.Put a 180/190 in it.reason being,The 160 opens way too early and doesnt let your coolant stay in the rad long enough to really exchange the heat.Your radiator then turns into a heat equalizer instead of a heat exchanger which is its sole purpose in life.If the stat just stays open all the time , then all of your coolant in the engine and in the radiator equalize to the same temp throughout and progressively gets hotter throughout, unless you're at highway speed and really jamming some air through the rad.

 

[67stang]

The 180 t-stat is the best place to start. I have had problems for 20 years with these things. You need to check for air in the system as well. If your t-stat housing is higher than your filler neck on the rad, you have a problem even if it doesn't appear to be. The best way to correct this is to run a #6 hose from each water passage in the rear of the intake into a T & run it either to the rad or the t-stat housing. I've tried everything trying to bleed out the air with no success. This stopped all my problems on my tube chassis car.

 

[n2omike]

The 160 thermostat does not stay open all the time. It is a temperature sensitive device.

It is normally in the closed position. As the coolant reaches 160 degrees, it begins to open, and stay open until the temperature falls below 160. A 180 or 195 thermostat does the same thing.

A properly working 160 degree thermostat will not cause the car to overheat. Most cooling problems (assuming the radiator is of sufficient size) can be attributed to bad airflow. PLENTY of air needs to travel through the radiator. To do this, the cooling system NEEDS a good fan and SHROUD. The air also needs an efficient path to the radiator, and OUT of the engine compartment. With most cars, there is plenty of room around the engine for the air to go down and out the bottom of the vehicle. Cars with small engine bays and BIG engines have more of a problem here. Using a cowl hood, or spacing the back of the existing hood up a bit can help.

As for the fan, most aftermarket electric fans aren't that strong. Your best bet is to scavenge a really strong factory unit. I hear a lincoln mark VIII (?) or something similar is supposed to be really strong.

Simply swapping to a cooler thermostat on a car with an overheating problem will not cure the problem. It WILL allow the engine to cool further (down hills or while coasting) to give more of a cushion when coming up to traffic, but will not solve any real problems. But, on the other hand, it won't make it overheat either.

Good Luck!

 

[paxtonman]

I'm cooling my 514 with a 1 1/2 inch tube Griffen and a 15 inch fan, no shroud and so far no problems. Its a thick radiator, fan is about 1 inch away and because of the way motor sits in the car the fan sticks above the top of the rad. by an inch or so.

 

[MonsterMach]

Are you certain of the condition of this 4 core radiator?

Sounds like your making an effort on most aspects

It has always been my understanding that running a lower temp thrmostat doesn't help with a cooling system that simply isn't effectivly doing it's job ... I'd run a stat that is correct for the build and work on the other parts of the cooling system to find the problem.

I am running a Griffin radiator on my 11.1:1 compression 351C ... along with a bunch of other ideas to assist cooling ...

If you want to read through the info, it's all printed on my home page (I have about 20 pages of narratives about my 351C build) ...

If you choose to check out what I did ...

From this screen go to my home page, from first page scroll down to "The Beast" click the icon ... that page has links to two narratives one on "parts selection" and the other on "assembly and installation."

I put major thought and effort into my cooling system.



_________________

Larry Madsen
Las Vegas Nevada



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: MonsterMach on 4/15/02 12:46am ]</font>

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: MonsterMach on 4/15/02 12:47am ]</font>

 

[Just Strokin]

Just curious, you did install the plate between the water pump and the timing cover, didn't you?

 

[mustangboy]

I would try a regular ford fan.I bought a big electric fan at a swap meet,had a Ford part # on it and it seems to move a ton of air.Since my stang came with air conditioning it already had 3 core rad and heavy duty flex fan.I have a 160 stat in it and it ran very cool.I switched to the electric fan with the original shroud still in place and the car ran very hot.I finally switched to a thermostatically controlled clutch fan and now the car runs cool again and the clutch fan costs very little power,actually none as long as your below the temp where it locks up.

 

[70grande]

I would start by looking at the radiator first. I had the same problem as well. I had a 3 row stock radiator in in my 70 mustang with a flexalite dual fan setup. Thing didn't cool worth a crap, so I installed a cheapy $150 scummit aluminum 2 row radiator. The only problem was that my dual fans wouldn't fit, so I went to a single fan version. I didn't think it would work, but it ended up cooling way better than the stock 3 row with two fans.

 

[n2omike]

If the car cools just fine at speed, the capacity of the radiator is adequate.

If it only heats up while sitting in traffic, the problem is the airflow, and a stronger fan/shroud will be needed.

Good Luck!

 

[fordguy]

i have a 460 in my 85 thunderbird and i have a motorsport aluminum rad, 160* t-stat,and one 16" puller fan and my car runs at 160* all day long. i run a 50/50 mix of water and antifreeze.

 

[87stang460]

well I got on the horn with summit racing today and ordered another radiator made by COOL IT geez that thing was exspensive nearly 600 dollars it should be in about three weeks from today the tech guy at cool it said never place a trans cooler in front of the rad instead get a cooler built in he claims works much better instead of pulling hot air through the rad from trans cooler he also claimed their 1 row aluminum 1" flu radiator would equal my four row copper brass rad so two rows should do the trick hope so anyway

 

[MonsterMach]

87 ... Good Choice ...

My Griffin was $510.00 so your in the ball park on price.

A few other things I did:

Engine oil cooler & 9 quart oil pan ...

Edelbrock Victor water pump ...

Rigid steel blade fan (largest one that fits in shroud), no clutch ...

Modified front valance, for better air flow to coller coils ...

Copper head gaskets, for better heat transfer from heads to block.

All of these things will assist cooling ... Probably overkill, by the standards of some

 

[87stang460]

to monster mach never thought of the copper head gasket deal sounds good though as far as fans go I gotta use electric fans, with a manual fan I would never be able to but a hood on my car water pump pulley sets high

 

[mustangzrule]

Yeah the radiator should do it. I had overheating in my stock 68 with a 302. Griffen aluminum radiator cured my ills. I will be keeping an eye on it now that I have a nice 10:1 408W in the bay, but so far the cam breakin didn't cause me any trouble.