Mustang Tech

Keegan wrote: ↑Sat Mar 30, 2024 9:26 am Definitely 148mm diameter.
2 grooves.

You could see if Bill Upham has any at Mansfield Mustang or West Coast Classic Cougar.
http://mansfieldmustang.com/

Thank you for measuring your pulley for me, I finally got a chance to measure mine today and it's the 148mm diameter pulley, so I guess that's not the problem. It look like the engine has to come out and be stripped unless I try an aluminium radiator, I have heard opinions for both sides of the coin on these aluminium radiators, the who swear by them and those that swear at them... I'm not sure who to believe and I have already spent way more than I ever intended on this car but I either need to get it running or part it out... which is something you don't normally hear on a full rotisserie rebuild, BUT... this car has eaten into the inheritance money left to me to fix up our house and I cannot justify spending much more money on it. Have you ever measured what temperature your car runs at?

Mine seems to run nicely at about 84°C while driving at constant speed, especially at 100 KMH, its when it's sitting at traffic lights or just sitting stationary (like after a drive, idling away), but once the heat builds up, then it sits at the higher temperature and doesn't return to the 84°C.
At 84°C the temperature gauge on the dash (Dakota Digital) sits at the halfway mark in the "normal range", but if you sit stationary in traffic or hit an up-hill slog, then it climbs to the high end of the normal range or higher, I have had it hit the letter "H" which I believe was around 125°C which is very disconcerting as you watch it climb to that point.

If you go aluminium, don't fall for the 4-row, 5-row BS.
With aluminium, what you want is big cores. So at least 1" cores.
More often than not, the 4 row and higher (and sometimes even 3 row) are 3/8" cores. Don't use those.

You are better off with 2-row 1" cores than a 4 row 3/8" cores.
The benefit of aluminium is that it's stronger and can handle bigger core length than copper/brass, so much more surface area for the fins.

Without seeing your car, is the flow of air to the front of the radiator impeded in any way? Like aftermarket grill, lights, aircon condenser, oil cooler, even an oversized licence plate…that could be blocking fresh air from coming in.
Also, have you installed a quality coolant?

My apologies for not replying to anyone recently, the family and I have been dealing with Covid and nothing has been done with the Mustang in quite some time. Does anyone know what temperature a 390 should typically run at (roughly), on say, a 21 degree day?

The current line of thinking is to pull the heads back off and re-check everything, but this wont be for a while now as the bloke with the workshop has headed over to the US for a month or two.

Keegan wrote: ↑Sun Mar 31, 2024 10:14 am Without seeing your car, is the flow of air to the front of the radiator impeded in any way? Like aftermarket grill, lights, aircon condenser, oil cooler, even an oversized licence plate…that could be blocking fresh air from coming in.
Also, have you installed a quality coolant?

I'm finally back on deck...

During our exploritive process we stripped everything off the front of the radiator, the grille and it's surround, fog/spot lights, A/C condenser, but left the narrow transmission oil cooler in place (as it sits more than two inches away from the radiator and shouldn't impinge airflow, it's as wide as the radiator but only stands about 4" tall), the front valance and bumper was left in place (no licence plate yet as I have to get this overheating issue resolved before I can get an engineer's certificate) but removing everything didn't seem to make any difference at all to the temperature OR the rate of heat build-up.

I forgot to add that we are using the green Penrite coolant in the system.

hybrid wrote: ↑Sun Mar 31, 2024 9:10 am If you go aluminium, don't fall for the 4-row, 5-row BS.
With aluminium, what you want is big cores. So at least 1" cores.
More often than not, the 4 row and higher (and sometimes even 3 row) are 3/8" cores. Don't use those.

You are better off with 2-row 1" cores than a 4 row 3/8" cores.
The benefit of aluminium is that it's stronger and can handle bigger core length than copper/brass, so much more surface area for the fins.

Thank you for the "heads-up" regarding the aluminium radiators, I have heard so many people knock these radiators saying they are nowhere near as good as the original brass/copper style, I heard that if they have sealing issues and they cannot be fixed, only replaced, as well as them not being as good for heat dissipation?

The other thing is they don't have that "original" look to them.

I've been through this post again and picked up on something you stated.
You claimed that the water and crank pulleys looked the same diameter.
They are not.
I just measured mine and it is 185mm diameter to the outside lip of the back groove which runs the water pump.(C8AE-6312-A)
Can you confirm the sizing of yours?
Jim.