First off: 1990 Mustang LX. Freshly built 306. My car gets pretty hott, pretty quick. When cruisin on the highway the car sits about 200-210 degrees. Once i get in stop and go traffic the temp starts to rise a little bit. If it idles for a period of time the thing just overheats. The eletric fan works for sure. The car came with smaller pullies on the car which means the water pump doesn't turn very hard in the city. Could this be my prob?


One more thing. I bought a new 180 degree thermostat. I noticed that antifreeze was not running through the big thick radiator hose running into the block. That seems like a problem.



What should I check??

 

Sounds like you could have an air pocket or the thermo. is not opening...You're is running way too hot...should be around 180 with a 180 thermo.

 

i had some crappy fan on my car for a short period, and did the same problem. i also had the ability to push or pull the air and when i intially hooked it up it was pushing the air back towards the radiator. What type of fan did you get?

 

yeah check that cooling fan to see if it is pushing/ or pulling air onto the radiator. if its set upwrong , reconfigure wirring to change directions and see if that helps also start it up with the cap off and see if it burps any air pockets. if it continues and all of the coolant lines are holding solid and not cololapsing. i would say maybe a intake gasket. , and worst case head gasket.

 

It's the black magic fan. I checked to make sure, and it's pulling the air in correctly. What about the water pump? Could that be bad?

 

your talking about the top radiator hose right? it should definately be flowing through once the thermo opens at 180 or so. i think there thermo is faulty,installed wrong, fan might not be strong enough or maybe the water pump, but usually they start to make horrible noises or seep out the hole.

 

OK guys. I just took my thermo off and noticed i got a 195 degree thermo instead of a 180. I just picked up a 180 so hopefully that helps. It just makes me wonder why no damn antifreeze is runnin' through the radiator hose.

 

cut a long funnel so it fits tight in the radiator neck. then start the car with the heater on. the system will burp it self with the antifreeze in the funnel being higher than everything else. hope this helps if it is an air pocket. How i always to mine and never had an issue with air.

 

from my experience usually when a water pumps goes out you get coolant coming from out of the weap hole. and play in the bearings, but i guess it could get stopped up or somthing, that also could cause no flow of water

 

OK. One more idea. I was checkin' out my fan. It by far DOES NOT cover the entire radiator. Isn't the fan supposed to cover the whole radiator?