Florida cooling

[Blue85]

Alright I am at the cooling system in putting the 85 back together. Stock bottom end, B202 cam, aluminum heads and fitech injection. I do have a large Griffey radiator. I believe my overheating issue in the past was the coolant flowing too fast and not staying in the radiator long enough so I am also installing a flow resistor.

Biggest question is how many cfm’ s are you running. I seem to remember an engine builder told me 500 cfm for every 100 horse. But I really can’t remember.

 

[Noobz347]

If it were me, I'd put a stock fan, clutch, and shroud on it. I'd also ensure the chin spoiler is in good shape.

Yeah, I know it's boring but it works really well.

 

[Bullitt347]

I do have a large Griffey radiator.

Hmmm. I did not know that Ken Griffey Jr. made radiators...

 

[AeroCoupe]

No no no, if its large then is a Ken Griffey Sr model.

 

[Blue85]

‍‍

 

[Monkeybutt2000]

That whole coolant flowing to fast is a fallacy.

 

[Noobz347]

That whole coolant flowing to fast is a fallacy.

Agreed

 

[Blue85]

I don’t know. What I do know is when I worked at the hot rod shop we fixed many of cooling problems with the restrictors, better fans, and putting the temp sensors in the right place. Just can’t remember how we determined what fan to use.

 

[Mustang5L5]

What temp thermostat are you using?

 

[Blue85]

180

 

[TOOLOW91]

Contour fans
Derales
Taurus fan
Mark 8 fan
Spals .

All will do the trick . Too much is never enough. 3200 or better you’ll be fine .

 

[Blue85]

Went with the contour. LRS had the fans and kit for right at 300.00. At the rate I’m going it will be fall before the car is back on the road but I guess we will see how it goes. Maybe we will fix this global warming stuff by next summer

 

[mikestang63]

what jeff said..... I live in Florida and with a contour fan, 180 stat, Champion radiator I rarely get above 180- 190.... I'm prefer E fans as they tend to move more air at idle and in stop and go vs the stock setup. But get a GOOD E fan like the ones above- a Cheap Chineese one that doesnt flow at least 3000 CFM wont cut it

 

[Blue85]

Yes the issue I had was 4 lanes of traffic dead stopped on a 110 degree day.
The fan in the pic is from late model they advertise it as 3500 cfm

 

[FastDriver]

Not an expert, but that looks right to me. Might go down this path again soon. Have twin spal fans with custom shroud on one car, a Mark 8 on another, and the stocker on my daily.

The daily moves up as high as the top white line on the gauge corresponding to something like 245* but only when running a/c on blast & only at idle. If I rev to 2k, it stays towards the middle line on the gauge. The Mark 8 car doesn't have A/C. The twin spal fan car stays rock solid. Comes on at 205*, quickly drops it to 195*, and cuts back off. That's on a 188* T-stat. So, at cruise the fan never runs.

I am uncomfortable with the stock fan setup letting the temps go so high, because oil can run 20-30* hotter and that's pushing it. So, I will likely upgrade to a Contour or Mark 8 setup, soon.

 

[Mustang5L5]

The issue with aftermarket contour fans is the motors aren’t as stout as the oem motors were. They don’t pull as much CFM as a OE takeoff fan would pull. The aftermarkets pull 25-30amps at full speed while the OE fans are in the 30-35amp range.

Of course good luck finding one these days in decent shape, so aftermarket is the only option. It’s been discovered that a Ford focus fan/motor will drop into the contour shroud giving a few more CFM of airflow. Of course now you are into that fan setup for a pretty penny.

 

[FastDriver]

What do you recommend, then? I imagine, I can get another twin spal setup as a last resort. If I'm gonna put $$$ into it, that's much nicer.

 

[Blue85]

Not an expert, but that looks right to me. Might go down this path again soon. Have twin spal fans with custom shroud on one car, a Mark 8 on another, and the stocker on my daily.

The daily moves up as high as the top white line on the gauge corresponding to something like 245* but only when running a/c on blast & only at idle. If I rev to 2k, it stays towards the middle line on the gauge. The Mark 8 car doesn't have A/C. The twin spal fan car stays rock solid. Comes on at 205*, quickly drops it to 195*, and cuts back off. That's on a 188* T-stat. So, at cruise the fan never runs.

I am uncomfortable with the stock fan setup letting the temps go so high, because oil can run 20-30* hotter and that's pushing it. So, I will likely upgrade to a Contour or Mark 8 setup, soon.

When mine hit 230 ish I could tell the motor was not happy at all. This happened often sitting in traffic. I would stop somewhere for a bit to let it cool. Fortunately seems to run great every time after it cooled.

 

[AeroCoupe]

@FastDriver - have you considered a heavy duty fan clutch on the stock setup? Some say this works better at idle.

 

[TOOLOW91]

I lost my trusty mishimoto rad 2 weeks ago . I know I am nuts but I have one of these coming . I moved the upper hose to the driver side though .

-20orb in and out , going to run 16 an upper hose . 20 an lower hose . The radiator is a 2 inch tube core . The spals are 14 inches I believe . Hoping to have hurricane air and be able to idle all day long with zero air flow .