Over heated Ford (Mercury) Engine on my F8

[cantankrs]

Originally Posted by cletrac

The first thing I'd do is ditch the thermostats. That's an old wives tale about needing them. Those pumps aren't that efficient that you need to slow the water down.

Hi David, I only have experience with a 70's OHV V8 down here in warm WA, and people had told me to ditch the thermostat but I discovered that on a really hot day having no thermostat just seemed to heat the water in the radiator faster until the whole cooling system was way hot. Having a thermostat in it allows the radiator contents to cool a bit more before its demanded. Presumably my situation came about because the water pump was fairly efficient - which perhaps is a vital condition in your statement.

Also with these old vehicles on a stinking hot day you can't even keep the motor running sitting in a drive-thru at McDonalds or wherever without the temp creeping up and up.

Remember that Henry Ford's SV V8 has the exhaust ports running across the block between the cylinders. This contributes to a hot motor thru its design. A clean radiator and functional waterpumps would seem necessary.

Also who's paid good money to have their radiator 'professionally cleaned' only to find it still has blocked cores cos they did it ultrasonically instead of removing the bottom tank and rodding it out like it needed? You only find out after things have gotten hot again! That nice fresh black paint ain't a certification!

Phil, from the same vehicle I can confirm that thermostats certainly can't be trusted from new because I then had to play with a string of thermostats that were opening later than their rated temps. In my situation I settled for a 160 thermostat that tested OK and seemed to resolve the issue with that type of motor.

Regards

Alex
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M3 Grant, Val, Ferrets, WM20, CMP's