Oxnard Montalvo

Sorry guys. That fan is NOT backwards.

It's a new engine right? New engines are tight and may run a little hot for a while. Did it actually boil over? (You should get a temp. gauge to eliminate the guessing.) If you didn't actually boil your coolant loss may be a result of being overfilled. When you fill it leave room for expansion.

Make sure the belt is tight, if you can turn the fan by hand it's too loose.

Hard starting when hot is often a product of too much advance and is often confused with vapor lock. Leave it at 8 and see how it runs.

In case it is vapor lock, why is the fuel line near the header? Doesn't it enter the engine compartment near the front of the engine, going through the apron?

I still have scars on my ankle from kicking off the radiator cap on a 365hp Chevelle. It was boiling but not bleeding off after being hammered for a while. I thought I could use my heel to open the cap to prevent the radiator from bursting. It didn't work out too well. Instead of just opening to the release position the cap blew completely off. My pants hooked on a hood latch bolt which kept my ankle in the stream of boiling coolant. It took me more than a few seconds to free it. That hurt like hell. I never did that again.

kalli

It actually is backward. I was convinced that if its backward it would move air in the opposite direction. it doesn't. it will work as well. just sh1tty (i'm not making use of the flat parts of my shovel and only use the angle to push a bit of air this way).
look at the pic and take the fan off mentally, mount the other way around in your head ... :-) makes 100% more sense than before

it's a new engine (~6000 miles)

i didn't actually boil the engine. when i revved here higher (idling) she kept running and would actually cool down a bit which would explain my fan problem. higher rev, more air moved


belt is tight.

good to know. wll have to check on timing marks first thing anyway

I've seen that on a 68 model of mate of mine. will probably do the same thing. no harm doing that

oh i do believe ya. got boiuled 15 years ago as well. thankfully no marks but wow that hurts (pulled a waterhose when hot ... plain stupid idea)

kalli

can't change fan without pullig the rad. will have to wait until tomorrow so

Starfury

Yes you can, Kalli. You just need to remove the shroud first:P

Also, try to find yourself a shorter fan spacer. Your fan is mounted too far into the shroud to be completely effective. It needs to be mounted about 1/2 in 1/2 out.

fakesnakes

All Ford engines (except some for boats) turn CW. Late model sepentine driven WPs turn CCW (or anti-clockwise for Kalli). A fan mounted backward sucks a little, mounted correctly sucks a lot.

Kalli, can't you pull the shroud and slide the fan out? I hate to see you pull the radiator as you will have to start over on your cooling system air purge. Most underdrive pulleys have a larger WP and/or a smaller crank pulley designed to take load off the engine. There are some that only slow the alternator and some that actually speed up the WP. It would be good to know what you have. Can you measure the pulleys on your original engine for comparison?

kalli

the shroud is no prob. can loosen and pull over the fan towards pump to get it out of the way
unfortunately the bolts holding the fan and spacer on the water pump are too long. When i loosen them they hit the rad before I can get them out. i assembled it this way round (first fan, then rad, so I never realised.

That's great info about half in half out. I can always shorten the spacer I have. I always thought the 'best practice' would be to just mount the fan half an inch away from rad

thanks for anti clockwise :-) but i'm on this forums long enough to understand some of the american phrases. People laugh at me when i use them here (trunk, hood, gas -> boot, bonnet, petrol ...)
as for the measurements I still have the original pulleys at friends place. so I'll measure before and after to see what I actually have here
I'm quite sure that my engine is clockwise (just from what i remember the timing marks to be)

kalli

you got me thinking this mornign. I might be able to pull all 4 bolts out as far as possible. they shouldn't extend into the waterpump anymore, only the spacer. So i should be able to pull spacer and fan at same time with all of em loose ... if that's the case you can officially call me stupid. i'll see at lunch

Kalli

fakesnakes

I was going to suggest that last night, but my home keyboard died. I can tell you it is very frustrating trying to use the on screen keyboard you use your mouse to type on!

The threads can't go through too far as they would hit the WP housing. It should work.

67mustang302

Try doing a compression leakdown test, or even a compression test. It's easy, takes very little time, and if it's a HG it might show up on a compression test, but will show up on a leakdown test.

kalli

so ... i have changed the fan over now (without pulling rad). kalli==muppet

but I remembered a sticker on one side of fan, so the PO had it in there the exact same way. i gave it a good look. but the other way around actually looks a bit better bnot that I've turned it.

i've taken 2 quick videos to better explain the problem (sorry crap quality because of mobile phone. camera dead).

first video:
already warm, sounds healthy, bit of revving and just one or two secs after that it's about to cut out. had to throttle a bit to catch it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AU4fpsFEpq0

second video shows way more:
engine is hot. temperature gauge still only shows under half, but there's proper heat of engine (subjective ...) and radiator is hot.
i'm not doing anything here, just filming the fuel pressure gauge. no throttle. nothing. just leaving it idle.
fuel pressure drops and engine is about to cut out but catches itself and keeps going. happens twice in video. engine stalled soon after video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYVjUuL2myg


this fuel pressure dropping was the reason i mounted the pump in back. and once i'm driving tehre's no problem and during warmup the fuel pressure is constant 6 psi

engine didn't get hot according to gauge. but i didn't stress it and had the hood open