Over heated Ford (Mercury) Engine on my F8

[cletrac (RIP)]

Originally Posted by Bob Moseley

Hi all - I think ditching thermostats is the old wives tale. Go back to the grass roots of engine design where a need was assessed to incorporate thermostats. Sixty three years on the engine is not as efficient through the water flow areas. Fix that and you should have no problems.

The design need for thermostats was to warm the engine up faster in cold weather. This is all well and good with most motors but the flattie suffers with other design problems. If you're running one in cold weather then run the thermostats but in hot weather removing them increases the water flow and helps with the problem. I'd bet money that Fords in the Sahara all had them removed. It's just something that has to be done. The LRDG preferred the Chevs because of the heating and fuel consumption problems they ran into with the Fords.I ran flatties in the 60s in cars and trucks and the only way you could run them was by removing the thermostats. With Chev or IHC 6 bangers it didn't matter. The engine design didn't create the problem. It was accepted practice on the Fords to remove them when you changed to heavier oil in the spring.
Even when flatties were relatively new they were always on the verge of heating and too hot a day or too heavy a load would put them over the top. It's just the nature of the beast. Under these conditions you have to use any trick available to help out and you'll still have to watch the temp gauge.