that was a great post. the pics helped alot. i'm gonna see what the reiche does and probably still end up doing the same mod. i like that switch that you put in.
1996 Cobra overheating fix? not your usual question
- Thread starter sae156
- Start date
It’s why i love manual cars i think automatics are for guys who can’t drive lol i like to have control of my stuff!!!! lol in all seriousness its awesome because once you aren’t moving it doesn’t matter how good your thermostat is if its not moving air across the radiator and in most conditions that’s sitting in traffic or slow moving conditions……its nice to be able to flip a switch and cool the beast!
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well, as hopefully a final update, here we go. 96 cobra. replaced A/C condenser with 97 model. all A/C intact and functioning. replaced 160F t-stat that I installed with a 170F Reische. bought a SCT tuner. reset fan temps to what Joel recommends. test drive Thursday. snow Friday.
Awesome man there should be no way you over heat now just a quick question what concentration of anti freeze and water do you use 50/50? Throw a bottle of water wetter in there it will help a good bit. I just dropped my concentration from 50/50 to 70/30 I still get freeze protection to about 4 degrees but that’s plenty my car lives in the climate control garage
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yes sir. i mixed up probably 60/40 by eyeball and added the water wetter too. also followed the burp procedure on reische website. just running at 2k sitting in the driveway, data logger only got up to 140//f
Thats not good. The perfect coolant temp is 212 deg F.
You want it to get to at least 212 F each time you drive it.
Get your tuner to put overheat protection in your yune as well so if it gets up over 244 degrees it shuts off. I put that in every tune I do and have saved countless engines. Even my own once when I forgot to plug the fan back in after doing some maintenance.
You want it to get to at least 212 F each time you drive it.
Get your tuner to put overheat protection in your yune as well so if it gets up over 244 degrees it shuts off. I put that in every tune I do and have saved countless engines. Even my own once when I forgot to plug the fan back in after doing some maintenance.
i'm gonna follow the advice of reische and lower the fan temps to what he recommends. thanks for the comment though.
212 is not the perfect coolant temp anything above 200 wrecks your orings and hoses over time 170-180 is the sweet spot for mod motors especially if running boost my car makes way more power at 170-180 due to less spark being taken away and iat2 being cooler vs200+. Oil temp is more important than coolant temp and oil temp will be higher than coolant temp 165-180 water is more than enough to stop condensation in the oil. I have never had any condensation building up in the oil
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The ford engineers designed the vehicle to operate at 212 degrees hence the 195 thermostat as temps usually regulate 15 above thermostat temp.
Reische or anyone else can say anything they want but the actual ford engineers designed the engine for 212 degrees.
If you have o-rings and hoses failing at 200 degrees you have other problems as these were all designed for 212 deg operating temps. Literally just about every vehicle made in the past few decades are designed to operate at 212 degrees F. 99% of the vehicles on the road today operate at 212 degrees with 195 thermostats.
You can do what you want with your vehicle but that doesn't change the intended design by the engineers that created it.
Aluminum doesn't start moving til you get over 250 degrees so you have quite a bit to go before you'll ever have any issues.
Also if you want to get scientific, INCREASING the thermostat temp will give you more cooling capacity since the delta temperature is greater.
Reische or anyone else can say anything they want but the actual ford engineers designed the engine for 212 degrees.
If you have o-rings and hoses failing at 200 degrees you have other problems as these were all designed for 212 deg operating temps. Literally just about every vehicle made in the past few decades are designed to operate at 212 degrees F. 99% of the vehicles on the road today operate at 212 degrees with 195 thermostats.
You can do what you want with your vehicle but that doesn't change the intended design by the engineers that created it.
Aluminum doesn't start moving til you get over 250 degrees so you have quite a bit to go before you'll ever have any issues.
Also if you want to get scientific, INCREASING the thermostat temp will give you more cooling capacity since the delta temperature is greater.
no offense but the Ford engineers also designed the A/C condenser with too many fins per inch which caused the overheating issues in the 96 and they had to issue a TSB to fix it.
none taken
...at least they fixed it
...at least they fixed it
true.
so you did bring up some points about temps etc and wanted to see what you think about my situation. in a nutshell, within a 2 hr radius, i could be anywhere from 5000 ft to 11000 ft elevation. i know that boiling point of water is considerably less here at the house (8800ft). how would that affect my temps and wouldn't a lower temp t-stat be beneficial? i saw that you are in Louisiana so i'm guessing you are pretty close to sea level? any thoughts?
I'm actually below sealevel.
fyi at 8800ft boiling point would be 195 deg f and 192 F at 11000 ft.
None of that is relevant though.
The cooling system is under pressure which raises the boiling point of straight water over 230 degrees F regardless which you shouldn't be near anyway. Any amount of antifreeze will raise that even further.
A higher thermostat raises the delta temperature between the radiator coolant temp and ambient temp giving your radiator higher dissipation efficiency.
If you suspect the cooling system is operating sub-par-ly then the very first step after verifying everything is functioning correctly is to flush the cooling system.
Its probably due for a good flushing any who. You have to use a pneumatic flushing gun to flush out the cooling system like the Lisle guns. Most mechanics and shops aren't aware that its impossible to flush a cooling system using a garden hose or a flush in a bottle.
After that your as good as your going to get. I wouldn't personally be concerned with it.
fyi at 8800ft boiling point would be 195 deg f and 192 F at 11000 ft.
None of that is relevant though.
The cooling system is under pressure which raises the boiling point of straight water over 230 degrees F regardless which you shouldn't be near anyway. Any amount of antifreeze will raise that even further.
A higher thermostat raises the delta temperature between the radiator coolant temp and ambient temp giving your radiator higher dissipation efficiency.
If you suspect the cooling system is operating sub-par-ly then the very first step after verifying everything is functioning correctly is to flush the cooling system.
Its probably due for a good flushing any who. You have to use a pneumatic flushing gun to flush out the cooling system like the Lisle guns. Most mechanics and shops aren't aware that its impossible to flush a cooling system using a garden hose or a flush in a bottle.
After that your as good as your going to get. I wouldn't personally be concerned with it.
well, finally took it for a drive into town. what used to cause the temp gauge to go slightly right of the L in NORMAL (basically driving really slow in 1st in our neighborhood) is now only in the R in NORMAL. per the SCT, the R is about 202-204F actual temp.
gonna call it case closed. i appreciate everybody who chimed in.
gonna call it case closed. i appreciate everybody who chimed in.
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