Heating issues and looking for input.

Topic: Heating issues and looking for input. (Read 2180 times) previous topic - next topic

Heating issues and looking for input.

March 04, 2021, 06:03:58 PM

First hello everyone!

My car is heating up in Atlanta traffic. Built motor with turbo still running stock radiator with Black Magic 12" electric fan.

I need to upgrade obviously.

At first I was thinking bigger is better with radiator but recently I've heard that the 3 and 4 row radiators put more pressure on the water pumps. So should I stick with a 2 row aluminum radiator and upgrade the fan to a dual that covers the entire radiator? car runs on the open road at 193 and climbs to 204-205 before light turns green then drops back down. Climbing hills it also climbs up in temp quickly.

I currently run an aftermarket external transmission cooler with fan as well. As you can see in the pictures there's a lot going on at the front of the car, intercooler, MSD box, external transmission cooler in front of intercooler and of course the body kit.

Suggestions on fans, radiators? Kind of being over whelmed by the selection of parts available at Summit racing. Currently plan to swap out thermostat for a 160 this weekend.

Please spare me the jokes cause I know they are coming about how dirty the engine bay is >> (Eric@CoolCats) LOL Car has been through a lot these past 10 years and is finally being made show ready again. Paint and body work comes right after I get this heating issue resolved.

Re: Heating issues and looking for input.

Reply #1 – March 04, 2021, 07:59:57 PM

I live in Henderson, Nevada. I don't know if this will help but I'm using a Frostbite, (Holley), 3 row aluminum radiator, 195 T-stat, 10 blade mechanical fan, Cobra clutch, aluminum water pump, with a 2 inch functional cowl hood. Car is a 87 Turbo Coupe with a modified 5.0, 5 speed. Running down the freeway at 70mph with the A/C on in the summer, car stays at 190*, stop and go it hits 205*.

Re: Heating issues and looking for input.

Reply #2 – March 05, 2021, 11:35:15 AM

Welcome back!

I've got a 3 core northern, I think it was a be cool brand radiator and a 180 thermostat and a single 18" fan and the car hasn't gotten over 200 even on 90-95* days. That being said, I don't have AC and all that is removed from the car at the moment and probably will be for a while.

Check out some of the stuff on LMR, their SVE radiators and contour fan kits are relatively cheap but we'll made.

Re: Heating issues and looking for input.

Reply #3 – March 05, 2021, 01:09:40 PM

https://www.coldcaseradiators.com/product/87-93-mustang-auto-aluminum-performance-radiator

These look nice, but i havent used them. I think the 160 is too cold for efi. I would try 180.

I think you need a better E fan as well. Something oem, not aftermarket. Coutour, Taurus, Mark VII, if you have the clearance for it.

Re: Heating issues and looking for input.

Reply #4 – March 05, 2021, 02:45:45 PM

Quote from: Weasle – on March 04, 2021, 06:03:58 PM

My car is heating up in Atlanta traffic. Built motor with turbo still running stock radiator with Black Magic 12" electric fan.

At first I was thinking bigger is better with radiator but recently I've heard that the 3 and 4 row radiators put more pressure on the water pumps. So should I stick with a 2 row aluminum radiator and upgrade the fan to a dual that covers the entire radiator? car runs on the open road at 193 and climbs to 204-205 before light turns green then drops back down. Climbing hills it also climbs up in temp quickly.

Suggestions on fans, radiators? Kind of being over whelmed by the selection of parts available at Summit racing. Currently plan to swap out thermostat for a 160 this weekend.

The 12" Black Tragic (in all fairness, I think they've gotten much better over the years) isn't doing you any favors. That is a tiny fan! If it was only overheating in the city (<45mph) I'd say you only need a fan. When you say temps climb when going up hill, is that <45mph or even on the interstate?

I'd probably go with a 16" single fan. Flex-a-lite, Spal, Summit, should give you a decent product. Ignore cfm (at least between brands) and look at amp draw. For a given fan diameter, amp draw (power) is what dictates cfm.
Example: Flex-a-lite 16". 18.5A, 3000cfm. Spal 16", 20.8A, 1918cfm. Does the Flex-a-lite really suck 50% more with less power? No. They inflate the hell out of their flow numbers. That's not to say Flex-a-lite make a bad product, just that you need to compare apples-to-apples when shopping for a fan.

If your radiator has seen better days, I'd bet a parts store single row would do fine.

Adding rows shouldn't actually put more pressure on the water pump. They'll actually put less pressure on it. The rows are in parallel so they add total area to the flow path. The downside to adding rows to a radiator is it increases the amount of pressure needed to pull a cfm of air through the radiator core. Your radiator fan becomes less effective.

Straight vs curved blades. Curved blades are quiet, straight blades pull more air when the pressure drop is higher (3-4 row radiator, added oil/intercoolers in front of radiator).

Lowering your thermostat to stop overheating is a stop-gap measure. Once your 'stat is fully open a 160 flows as much as a 180/195 degree 'stat. It adds some head room before you overheat but on a hot day in traffic or a long hill, you'll still overheat.

If I were spending your money I'd probably buy this fan: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/spu-ix-30102621 and flush the radiator if it's got any deposits. If that doesn't fix it, buy something like this radiator: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sum-384052/reviews

Re: Heating issues and looking for input.

Reply #5 – March 11, 2021, 01:39:34 PM

I put a Griffin 3-core aluminum radiator in my '83 behind the 351W with some compression and it handles the SW Oklahoma heat with zero issues. Car also has AC but I do have a Mark VIII fan and a DC controller. Install is here and skip down to post #20:

https://www.foxtbirdcougarforums.com/index.php?topic=33877.msg416211#msg416211

You need to get everything you can out from in front of the radiator opening and ditch that horrible fan. I ran the AutoZone "special" which was a cheap 3-core brass radiator in my '93 Coupe and it was okay but the three core aluminum I installed in it was alot better at handling the Houston heat when we lived down there a few years back. Again, AC car with a Mark VIII fan and DC controller.

Re: Heating issues and looking for input.

Reply #6 – March 12, 2021, 10:31:46 PM

Quote from: Aerocoupe – on March 11, 2021, 01:39:34 PM

Again, AC car with a Mark VIII fan and DC controller.

I blew up my Gen 1 DC Control unit when I shorted the wrong pins while on the car. Just really dumb human factors design ( what you would expect from a EE, lol). Looks like his Gen 2 controllers don't have that issue

I've moved on to an AutoCoolGuy controller. Does everything DCC does without the long lead time and difficulty contacting the owner for support. I like the sensor much better than DCC's in-fin setup.

AutoCoolGuy's website and units are much clunkier looking though!

https://www.autocoolguy.com/

Re: Heating issues and looking for input.

Reply #7 – March 14, 2021, 12:33:55 PM

That is great to have a alternate source for a controller. I am still on the original one I bought from 10+ years ago on the Coupe and had to replace the one in the Bird due to some idiot wiring backwards...yeah that was not a good day. I have always had good communication with DCC but I have read others posting about not so good communications. Realize I have only bought three units and one additional temperature sensor so its not like I deal with him alot but I have zero complaints. I am partial to the DCC due to the way it senses which is in the radiator fins at the outlet as it has controlled the temperature alot better than other units of the past. I will say that having the sensor in the coolant stream would be really hard to beat accuracy wise.

I run the FK-45's on the Mark VIII fans:

http://www.dccontrol.com/constant_temperature_controllers.htm

Another one I have seen is Dakota Digital's fan controller and its pretty cool in that it it set up with a blue tooth and integrates really well as does all their stuff:

https://www.dakotadigital.com/index.cfm/page/ptype=product/product_id=1207/category_id=-1/mode=prod/prd1207.htm

Again, I would most likely go back to a DCC due to it being able to be mounted in the engine bay or up behind the front bumper like I have it mounted on both my cars.