overheating, need help

OK guys, another problem I need some advice on. This weekend my cooling fan went out. I bought a universal one from a local auto parts store. I reused the old shroud and mounted it back in there. The fan is the same size as the original. The one thing that I wasnt informed of when I bought the thing is that you have to wire it backwards to make it a puller fan instead of a pusher. The instructions on the box just said to flip the blades and it would pull. I did that and drove it about 12 miles. Obviously it overheated pretty bad. Almost 250 degrees to be exact. Well after calling around and getting some advice, I switced the wires and it finally worked the way it is supposed to. I wired it to where it would run as long as the key is on. My problem now is that it keeps getting up to about 240 degrees after normal driving. It runs fine, no miss at idle or speed. No water in the oil and no coolant leak. It never ran this hot before all of this. I am running a griffin radiator and the temp never got over 210 before this. Any ideas? I hate to think I have to do the headgaskets on another supercoupe. Any help would be greatly appreciated! By the way, its over 100 degrees here every day and I'm not running the a/c

go to a bone yard and get an early 90's taurus fan, they are better than stock and plug right in, from my understanding....You can even use just the motor from one of those in our shrouds and with our blades....
Sounds like your new motor is not going to fill the bill....
good luck,

paul

T-bird Tim said:

Any help would be greatly appreciated! By the way, its over 100 degrees here every day and I'm not running the a/c

Click to expand...

~"Wow . .. +100 would be cool compared to our +112 right now. I am in the same boat, and have PARKED mine until I figure out what to do! I had the radiator recored, cap replaced, thermostat replaced and even replaced the sensor that tells the fan when to turn on. It still runs hot.

may try to hook up a pusher fan on the front side of the radiator and see if that helps. I'll probably do it this weekend and I'll post the results.

You may have already done this, but how much antifreeze are you running?

Most people run 50/50 for year round, but I usually reduce the antifreeze in the summer, because water cools better.

I am running about 15% antifreeze with about 85% distilled water, plus 2 bottles of redline water wetter. That should be enough to prevent corrosion and lube the pump.

I also have a griffin radiator with a 180* napa T-stat, and reprogrammed fans via the EEC.

Stay away from the "high flow" t-stats, as they allow the coolant to circulate too quickly.

My car never gets above 195 degrees. We had a record of 102 last week here in Denver, and it still ran cool. It will get a bit hotter, about 202-204 with the A/C on (R-134a retrofit creates a hot condensor!)

Jeramie

Thanks for the info. I think I will stay clear of the pusher fan idea. I was told that it may actually make it worse having two fans trying to fight for the same air. I'll go ahead and change the thermostat this weekend and flush the whole cooling system. I'll try more water and less coolant and see if that helps. I've never heard of this water wetter stuff. What is it and where would I get it?

Did you turn the fan blade back around after you rewired it?

I have found water wetter at Advance Auto Parts, Pep Boys, and Autozone.

Its about $7 for a bottle, but its the only stuff I've actually seen work.. It improves the ability of water to transfer heat (both at the cylinder head, and at the radiator). If you have a standard radiator, 1 bottle will be plenty.

Also make sure you have all of the factory Air dams, and diverters in place. They "scoop" up the air as you drive down the road and direct it through the radiator.. Without these diverters, the air will just bounce off and go under the car.

Hope this helps,

Jeramie