jwog666

i tend to sluff off the obvious

ucinn

The 3.8 had head gasket problems because they used a non reinforced paper gasket. They even redid them for free if you had less than 100,000 miles on them. My 98 had them done at 76,000 and Ford picked up the bill.

rls82959

Perhaps the factory fan settings are to high.
218 low fan & 228 high fan.
A 192 thermostat would be fully open at about 202-205.
Not that 12 degrees makes a huge difference, but my fan turns on at 206.
I don't really trust the factory water temp gauge, so I bought a scangauge
a few years back. Fan turns on exactly at 206.

philipswanson

I spoke with Felpro Tech more about this. The cause is two fold. Yes, you get the compression on the head gasket and then you get what Felpro calls a scrubbing effect of the gasket. Felpro has designed their head gasket to resist this from causing a failure.

Keep it cool, any way you can. Get rid of the hot thermostat and reduce fan on temp, iron thermostat, water wetter and even a larger radiator all help. Reduce your ratio of anti freeze in summer to 25%.

jwog666

all of this is pointless, the engine will not overheat unless there is a problem somewhere. thermostat, radiator, 50/50 ratio, and stock on time for fans will all keep an engine without a fault running at the correct temp. in no way is doing any of this to an engine that isnt having an overheat concern going to gain you anything. and if you have to change any of these things to keep it cool, then all you are doing is masking the real concern. and as was said before, overheating ANY engine will shorten its life and the life of the head gaskets.

philipswanson

You are contradicting yourself. You need to do ALL you can to beef up the cooling systems. Sounds like you are treading that big river, in Da Nile. If you wait until you have a cooling problem, it may be too late. And yes a 50/50 mixture of antifreeze will make the engine run hotter than straight water. Do what you want, burn up your motor first, then worry.

jwog666

sigh, you know absolute crap about engines, that is apparent. beefing up a cooling system on a stock engine that has no issues is a waste of money and time. and.....beefing up the cooling system on a stock engine because its overheating is a waste of time and money because all you are doing is masking the TRUE concern. get educated then come back buddy


a 25% mix of anti freeze will cause you to have to flush your system out every winter and again in spring, to prevent freezing, and will also not protect against corrosion, more proof you know little, but hey i cant make a person use logic

movielover40

I remember Cadillac had that v-8 with aluminum block and cast iron heads and that was a real turkey.

Stangbass

I'm ragging on my 4.0 shoving up to 14lbs of boost through a "hot box" style SC for 20 minute hpde sessions on the stock cooling system with nothing but a cooler t-stat and aluminum housing, and the engine doesn't even come close to running hot. I get a slight rise at the end of long straights, but I don't ever recall seeing it past the half way point.