New '96 Cobra Owner.. Tons of questions!

[Serfma]

Hey everyone! Finally put my big boy shoes on and got a '96 Cobra that needs some work. I have very little history on it, so I'm finding things out as I go and I have a few questions!

1. Coolant temp. What's the norm? 215 has been the max I've seen it reach while idle. Fan kicks on and gets it down to around 208. A few people have told me 215 is "way too high, overheating" but coolant temp gauge sits in the middle (have tested, does work)
2. What's the flushing process like?
3. Engine oil temp? Running an OBD2 scanner with Ford PIDs w/ Torque Pro and Engine Oil Temp randomly will work, but sets at around 33F and does not change.

My worries right now is that there may be a head gasket leak and I'm trying to narrow it down before I throw any more money into it. Oil doesn't appear frothy / milky, today's compression test (both cold & hot) resulted in about the same compression values for both driver side and passenger side cylinders (around 105 driver, 160 passenger) that didn't change when it was tested while hot. Which, thinking the compression tester was having issues for a few reasons haha.

 

[me32]

The 96 cobra had a recall for the cooling fans and the A/C system. They were overheating. Maybe you can ask someone to run your vin to see if the recall was ever done.

 

[Serfma]

The 96 cobra had a recall for the cooling fans and the A/C system. They were overheating. Maybe you can ask someone to run your vin to see if the recall was ever done.

Interesting. So is this to say 215 is way too high?

 

[me32]

Interesting. So is this to say 215 is way too high?

The 215 is a little high but not over heating. Over 220 is over heating. How is it while driving? WOT?

Has the cooling system ever been flushed?

 

[Serfma]

The 215 is a little high but not over heating. Over 220 is over heating. How is it while driving? WOT?

Has the cooling system ever been flushed?

Yet to drive it. It's needing a clutch cable, which I'm swapping tomorrow.

Attempted a flush, swapped thermostat with stock 192F thermo, found radiator is very slightly leaking but while filling up after third flush cycle had put coolant in and found it's backing up through reservoir and overflowing, along with the same when checking the bleeder valve. Thought it was head gasket leak related.


Engine temp is monitored by solely coolant temp, yes?

 

[me32]

Yet to drive it. It's needing a clutch cable, which I'm swapping tomorrow.

Attempted a flush, swapped thermostat with stock 192F thermo, found radiator is very slightly leaking but while filling up after third flush cycle had put coolant in and found it's backing up through reservoir and overflowing, along with the same when checking the bleeder valve. Thought it was head gasket leak related.


Engine temp is monitored by solely coolant temp, yes?

One more thing on the recall the stock radiator was replaced too. If its leaking see about getting a fluidyn radiator. They use to be a popular upgrade back then.

 

[me32]

Also on the video it may still have a ton of air in the system. Did you properly blup the system by removing the little cap with an allen wrench on the cross over tube. Should be black in color?

 

[Serfma]

One more thing on the recall the stock radiator was replaced too. If its leaking see about getting a fluidyn radiator. They use to be a popular upgrade back then.

Yeah this radiator is aftermarket, absolutely not a clue where it's from. Didn't really check, but knew it was aftermarket.

Also on the video it may still have a ton of air in the system. Did you properly blup the system by removing the little cap with an allen wrench on the cross over tube. Should be black in color?

Yes, didn't let it sit too long idle, but tomorrow I'll give it some idle time with the bleeder valve open too. I'm assuming I need to be feeding it coolant through that valve vs the reservoir?

(I am an absolute car noob, but researching and taking in as much knowledge as I can to learn, thanks for the quick replies)

Also -- what's the end-all test for checking head gasket leak? Rather peace of mind by verifying a gasket leak or not before I toss $$$ into it

 

[me32]

Yeah this radiator is aftermarket, absolutely not a clue where it's from. Didn't really check, but knew it was aftermarket.



Yes, didn't let it sit too long idle, but tomorrow I'll give it some idle time with the bleeder valve open too. I'm assuming I need to be feeding it coolant through that valve vs the reservoir?

(I am an absolute car noob, but researching and taking in as much knowledge as I can to learn, thanks for the quick replies)

Also -- what's the end-all test for checking head gasket leak? Rather peace of mind by verifying a gasket leak or not before I toss $$$ into it

Make sure to run your heater on full blast and hot while running the car with the bleeder valve open it should take about 20mins or so.

As for the head gasket check you could do a compression check also the milky oil would be a tell sign.

When changing oil and coolant did you notice and milky or sluge in either?

 

[Serfma]

Make sure to run your heater on full blast and hot while running the car with the bleeder valve open it should take about 20mins or so.

As for the head gasket check you could do a compression check also the milky oil would be a tell sign.

When changing oil and coolant did you notice and milky or sluge in either?

Getting no a/c fan at the moment, but will do that asap. Had no idea it'd take that long, thx for the info

Attempted a compression check while cold and then hot. Values were different for driver side valves than passenger. 105 roughly all the same for the first 4, 150 for the last 4. Unsure if compression kit was just broke (air leaking and wouldn't drain back to 0 for a good few minutes after each time) or if it's a real leak.

Coolant was still green, no milkiness or sludge. Tomorrow I'll report back after oil change.

 

[decipha]

215 is not too hot and 220 is certainly not overheating.

The optimal perfect temperature to operate the engine in a perfect world is 212 degrees. The safe engine coolant temperature is around 250 degrees. It is perfectly fine and wont hurt anything at or below 250 degrees. Just above 250 degrees is where metal starts warping so above 250 its not wise to operate an engine. In all of my cobra tunes I shut the engine off when coolant temp reaches 244 degrees for safety. I have had several hundred people (myself included) hit the over-heat protection limit when cooling fans failed and it saved the engine. Never once had an engine failure.

Flushing the coolant system depends on how dirty the coolant currently is. If its still green basically drain the coolant and fill it with water. Get it up to operating temp and shut it off and let it cool enough to safely drain the cooling system again. Fill it up with water again and run her to operating temp. Repeat until the water coming out is as clean as it is when you put it in.

If the coolant is rusted then you will have to remove the thermostat and run the hose through it with the engine running until it comes out clear and repeat the method mentioned just above.

The eec-v pcm in your car does not support an oil temp sensor. The value your logging is completely bogus.

 

[Serfma]

215 is not too hot and 220 is certainly not overheating.

The optimal perfect temperature to operate the engine in a perfect world is 212 degrees. The safe engine coolant temperature is around 250 degrees. It is perfectly fine and wont hurt anything at or below 250 degrees. Just above 250 degrees is where metal starts warping so above 250 its not wise to operate an engine. In all of my cobra tunes I shut the engine off when coolant temp reaches 244 degrees for safety. I have had several hundred people (myself included) hit the over-heat protection limit when cooling fans failed and it saved the engine. Never once had an engine failure.

Flushing the coolant system depends on how dirty the coolant currently is. If its still green basically drain the coolant and fill it with water. Get it up to operating temp and shut it off and let it cool enough to safely drain the cooling system again. Fill it up with water again and run her to operating temp. Repeat until the water coming out is as clean as it is when you put it in.

If the coolant is rusted then you will have to remove the thermostat and run the hose through it with the engine running until it comes out clear and repeat the method mentioned just above.

The eec-v pcm in your car does not support an oil temp sensor. The value your logging is completely bogus.

Thanks!! Do you know if misfire counts are apart of the PCM? Using Torque Pro, predefined PID sets for Ford, Cyl 1 PID being 22160e for example.

 

[decipha]

yes on initial power up the tune parameters configure the aice chip (obd-2 monitor) which times the crank trigger pulses and with the addition of the learned profile correction can pretty accurately detect misfires

this is assuming your tuner didn't disable profile correction nor misfire monitoring. Most custom tuners that use SCT disable them since all of the sct can tunes do.

 

[decipha]

yes on initial power up the tune parameters configure the aice chip (obd-2 monitor) which times the crank trigger pulses and with the addition of the learned profile correction can pretty accurately detect misfires

this is assuming your tuner didn't disable profile correction nor misfire monitoring. Most custom tuners that use SCT disable them since all of the sct can tunes do.

 

[decipha]

yes on initial power up the tune parameters configure the aice chip (obd-2 monitor) which times the crank trigger pulses and with the addition of the learned profile correction can pretty accurately detect misfires

this is assuming your tuner didn't disable profile correction nor misfire monitoring. Most custom tuners that use SCT disable them since all of the sct can tunes do.

 

[decipha]

yes on initial power up the tune parameters configure the aice chip (obd-2 monitor) which times the crank trigger pulses and with the addition of the learned profile correction can pretty accurately detect misfires

this is assuming your tuner didn't disable profile correction nor misfire monitoring. Most custom tuners that use SCT disable them since all of the sct can tunes do.

 

[Serfma]

Oh ok, not sure what has been done previously to the car but I'm pretty certain I'm feeling misfiring (shaking while idling) yet obd reads 0. -snip- Edit: after researching it appears clearing ECU would do the job of essentially a factory reset


Didn't get any time today to touch the car so I'll be reporting tomorrow what I find when allowing the car to idle for 20 mins with bleeder valve open.

Additionally, what's the proper method of doing a compression check? Fuel pump fuse need to be yanked, WOT, car idle for 20 minutes to be sufficiently warmed up for length of procedure? Removed all plugs, didn't WOT, cold test, pulled fuel pump fuse, tested each cylinder and 1-4 received 105 - 115, 5-8 around 150 - 165. Quite certain I didn't mess anything up but am hoping I missed or did something stupid so that's not confirmation of head gasket leak and having to attempt that nightmare

 

[Serfma]

So.. was draining the oil when I noticed this beautiful clutch fork mess. I knew there was something up with the clutch cable (or so I thought) and didn't get a good look until today.

Looks like it's time to replace everything.

Also -- oil was not milky one single bit and looked fine. This is after flushing the entire cooling system and running more coolant through it at op. temperature and allowing it to burp for 30 minutes.

 

[ViciousBlack97]

So.. was draining the oil when I noticed this beautiful clutch fork mess. I knew there was something up with the clutch cable (or so I thought) and didn't get a good look until today.

Looks like it's time to replace everything.

Also -- oil was not milky one single bit and looked fine. This is after flushing the entire cooling system and running more coolant through it at op. temperature and allowing it to burp for 30 minutes.


View attachment 1597482

Wow, that's an almost impressive example of rigging something. I wonder if it started off as temporary but just kept working haha

 

[Serfma]

Wow, that's an almost impressive example of rigging something. I wonder if it started off as temporary but just kept working haha

Lol not sure what was up with it. I found it is indeed a performance clutch. Maybe cable kept slipping off?

So far I've found the two oxygen sensors (please do correct me if I'm wrong) on the driver side exhaust pipe are both there but like they were clipped off. Could this cause rich running?

Dash appears to be swapped, rusted all inside but there's no rust elsewhere. Car has been up on its side so possible why it was swapped.

Can't believe someone would treat this car so terribly lol instrument panel wasn't working because they couldn't figure it out as I was told, was simply door chime module shorted.