dlazrael

Well, I bought me a 1995 GT 5.0L today, it has a racing chip, but I don't know the brand, and the gears are pretty close, but im not familiar enough with them to know if they are 3.73, 3.9, 4,1 or stock. BUT
I was driving it around all day, and the temp was fine, then later at night, i went and started driving, another 'stang challenged me, so I naturally went with it. Well, I w/o realizing it (cause i cant hear my engine with my top down); i ran 75 mph, in 3rd gear, which was redlining in the 6500 rpm range; for about 10 miles (while dodging traffic) now, I know it's my fault for not watching my tach, but what possible damage could i have done? I stopped it before it overheated, and now I'm letting it sit to cool off. It cooled off to around the "M" on the gauge (a little hotter than it was running all day) just driving it the 20 or so miles back to my house. My gf thinks i may have blown a head gasket; just looking for best and worse case scenarios, thanks in advance

paulstang

well your gears are not stock mine will do 110 in 3rd without being close to red line.

91hatchgt

Well depending on how hot it got you could have warped the heads, blown head gaskets, melted engine hoses, melted pcv, partially siezed the engine, etc..

Or you could have done nothing...

Let it cool down, Check your oil, maybe change it to make sure their are no chips of metal in it, or water. Make sure you have adequate oil pressure still.. Check your coolant (when it cools off) .. I would even do a compression check on each cylinder, that will tell you a lot.. Good luck, and if you got lucky this time, don't do it again! I overreved my old engine, and didn't know there was anything wrong with it, when all of a sudden I was at a red light, and the crankshaft snapped in two, cracking two cylinders, destroying my timing chain cover, balancer, oil pump etc. and I didn't even know anything was wrong. Be careful, overrevving is a BAD thing!

sc94gt

6500 rpm! Are you on crack?
Don't ever take it past 6000 rpm and hold it.
The HP dies off after 5500 anyways, so shift it then.
Be careful, Diaz!

Also, you shouldn't have shut it off as I learned last week at the races.
Next time let it idle and keep the fan going, turn on your heat at full blast too to let the engine cool down.
If you just shut it off the water will boil even higher.

dlazrael

well, i took it to a shop (do it yourself shop, with guided assistance on base) and we ran all sorts of checks, vaccuum etc.
We boiled it down to the thermostat got stuck in the 'closed' posistion, so i wasnt getting any coolant to the engine. Replaced the thermostat, which is a pain with that 5.0, and it runs nice and normal now, pretty much smack dab in the center. Ive noticed while running it, the engine gets slightly hotter @ lower gear/rpm's/mph (say around 40 or so) and cools off signifigantly (as in, i can see the change in my gauge) when i hit about 50 mph in 3rd/4th gear. Might this be a calibration problem (on the gauge?)?
What do you think I have then? 4.1? 3.9? how do I check?

Yea, I dont have any idea what I was thinking, not paying attention to my revs and more to the bikers that were weaving around beside me

MattCA

if your racing, arnt you supposed to go as fast as possible anyways? lol. paulstang, what gear ratio do you have?

crazyhorse

is your mustang modded ? it is suppose to start cutting out at 6250 rpm.