overheating problem

[Kevins89notch5.0]

I noticed once while in some stop and go central FL traffic that the gauge was getting pretty high. Yesterday she went WAY to high in the drive thru and started spitting coolant. Here is a pic of a temp gauge I found and edited. The red line is where my beater was at.

Luckily I was just being handed my food as she started puking coolant. I drove off, and was fine once she got moving. She dropped two whole line within a minute or two. The problem is clear that the cars cooling system sucks at idle. What could cause this?

 

[Distortion 5.0]

Sounds like your cooling fan is non operational. Here's how you check; get a buddy to switch the ignition to run while you watch the fan. It should spin for a moment as it is POST ed. IF it doesn't spin, either your relay or the fan motor is bad. Most likely the relay. Many people wire the fan to a constant power source when this happens. On my 87 lx and on my GT (custom fan) the cooling fans are wired to the coil. I don't reccomend this as it could cause power issues, but it works for me. Best bet is to wire the fan to a switch and make sure to monitor the temp, actuating the fan as neccesary. As a general rule you can cut it off at around 35 mph or more. Hope this is helpful.

 

[Dr_EluSivE]

i beleve that doesnt hold true on the 2.3's. the fan isnt computer controlled. its just controlled by a temp switch. But if your Ac works, you can turn that on and see if the fan kicks on, or just go for a drive, then get out and see if its running. My car actually cools better at idle then it does while i am driving.

Dr.

 

[Distortion 5.0]

The temp switch controls the relay on the strut tower. They where bad on my 88, and my 87. I installed the fan on the GT myself. The 93 I just got has the same system and it is operational.

 

[Red_LX]

My '90 did the same thing when the fan died. Except, I didn't know it and I was stuck in traffic and it overheated and cracked the head. It was not good. You might wanna just go buy an aftermarket fan and hook it up.

 

[Distortion 5.0]

You could always get a shround and a clutch fan from a gt.

 

[RustBucket]

The problem with the engine driven fan is that it causes a loss of approx. 10hp on a motor that can't really afford to lose it.

 

[Kevins89notch5.0]

The problem with the engine driven fan is that it causes a loss of approx. 10hp on a motor that can't really afford to lose it.

so true. The car is slow enough as is.

I still haven't looked into the problem yet. I'll get to it one of these days. Until then I'll just stay away from busy traffic.

 

[kiddiccarus]

I have the same problem, I can drive and the car is fine but stop and go traffic will send the temp through the roof and "warming up" the car is suicide.

the thing will Overhear in a heartbeat, but the heater dont work. go figure....

 

[RustBucket]

If the fan is good, and the temp switch is good, there's a way to fix a non working fan without going the toggle switch route. I never was a fan(no pun intended) of toggle switches on electric fans or elecric fuel pumps. Seems I was either forgetting to turn them on or off. Hard to impress a group of people by doing a smokey burnout in your V8 Maverick when the car sputters and shuts down shortly after the tires break loose because you forgot to flip the fuel pump switch on.

Since the IRCM is mainly a box of relays, instead of replacing all of them, just replace the bad one. A 30amp 5 blade relay like they use for foglights and such wired so that it takes the place of the relay in the module will get you back up and running.

Here's a schematic:

 

[kiddiccarus]

Since you are going to hold off and I am having the same problem as you. I am going to bogard this thread.

Mine is a 93 and I was sitting at work here after drivinf 40 miles. The engine was nice and warmed up. i sat and sat and watched the temp rise, poped the hood and the fan was not doing a thing.

What wire do I look for to ground it out so I can check the fan?

I have searched threads and tech articles. The link that 140 put in is not working so can somone link me to a manual fan switch walk through?

I did print off the above diagram and will look at it against the car too.

 

[stangs4evr-roy]

thanks for the diagram rustbucket, I am picking up the relay and a new temp sensor today this looks like it should be a good fix.

 

[RustBucket]

The temp switch you want is the one that threads into the block in the back on the driver's side. The ground referenced in the drawing is the engine block. There is only one wire connection on the temp switch.

 

[Red_LX]

Ummm...I thought that was just the sender for the gauge. I thought the coolant sensor in the lower intake was the one that told the computer to switch the fan on.

 

[Kevins89notch5.0]

Well a couple days ago my roommate and I had plans to pick up a 89 GT the following day. http://forums.stangnet.com/showthread.php?t=578393

Before we left, my roommate thought it would be a good idea to look into the problem of overheating incase we got stuck in traffic. First I topped off the radiator as it was a little low after puking in BKs drive thru. Then we checked all the fuses under the dash, and they were all good. Then according to our Chiltons we grabbed some extra wire we had around, and jumped the fan. It worked fine. We then plug it back in, and started it up. After a couple minutes the temp gauge went up, we clearly heard the fan kick on, and later back off, and the temp never went past half way up.

So, I have no clue. It made the 110 mile drive to get the 89 GT, and back just fine.

 

[rd]

2.3 cars have the fan controlled by a CCRM or similar module. On my 89 it is under the dash to the left of the steering column. On later ones, it is under the hood and has a different name. It is controlled by the EEC4 module to some degree.

There is a separate temp sensor for this module, (as well as one for the EEC and one for the gage) but it does not control the fan directly, but via the relay module.

On my 89 the relay in the module controls the fan directly, so there is large amps going from the module to the fan motor. It tends to overheat and melt the connector at the module. Ford and the aftermarket sell the new connector as well as the module. My modules survived, but I have melted two connectors.

I ended up putting a relay at the fan for power and using the module to just operate the relay.

Then last week the new fan motor died, so the original is back in and working fine.

 

[fspilot1971]

I am having the same heating problem...on a hot day (over 85) and in traffic, the fan kicks in, but it doesn't cool the engine, it continually keeps slowly getting hotter.

Any Ideas?

 

[fspilot1971]

Anyone have any ideas?

 

[Red_LX]

Flush your radiator.

Also, you're a lot better off starting a new thread than replying to a 3 year old one.

 

[Jimmy2Times]

Guys,

If you're overheating despite the fact that your fan is coming on, there's only a few things it can be:

1. Faulty temp gauge lying to you: verify temp readings with infrared thermometer before you spend any money on new parts. Of course if you're puking out coolant that's a good sign you are in fact overheating.
2. Bad thermostat: test in pot of water on stove with meat thermometer and watch for temp at which it opens. If bad, replace with a new one but test the new one the same way before you install it.
3. Clogged radiator: shine flashlight down into radiator and look for deposits clogging ends of core passages. If it's gunked up, flush radiator like Red_LX says.
4. Low on coolant: fill it up and check for leaks. Check coolant level in radiator, not just overflow bottle.
5. Fan not moving enough air: check radiator fins for debris clogging them; check fan to make sure it's getting enough amps and spinning fast enough.