What temp is too hot?

[Tripoli]

What temp is too hot? - Think I'm overheating.

I installed gauges and a supercharger a couple months ago. Never really knew what tempterature my car was really running before that, so I have no idea what I should expect to see now. While it was cool, the car stayed between 180-205 degrees most of the time. Now that it's warmer here in Texas and I'm running the A/C, the temp is getting higher. Today it got up to 232 degrees.

What is considered a safe tempterature to run? At what point do I need to consider getting a better cooling system?

 

[patman0911]

Did it peak there and then quickly come back down or did it stay in the 230s for a while? Was this driving around at speed or stuck in traffic, or after and extended period at WOT? Was 232 on the gauge or is that what the PCM was reporting?

180 is kind of low. The thermostat is supposed to be 195 degrees so it shouldn't get too much cooler than that unless you've swapped it for a colder one. The low speed fan kicks on around 225, IIRC, and somewhere in the 230s the fan will go to high speed.

You may want to do a check up of your cooling system as that sounds pretty high and we're not quite into May yet. The high speed fan should already be running if you've got the A/C on and it should be tough to get the engine that hot with the fan running and in normal driving. If the system hasn't been flushed and cleaned out in a while, it might be time.

The stock cooling system may also not be able to keep up with the extra load of a blower. I'm not sure what Ford did to the cooling system for the Terminators but that might be a good place to look if the cooling system checks out OK otherwise.

 

[Tripoli]

So, over the weekend, I put in a new stock replacement thermostat, because I thought the old one might be sticking open or closed from time to time. While I was at it, I put in a bottle of Water Wetter, and raised the water-to-antifreeze ratio to about 60:40.

Today, on my way home from work, I got stuck in stop-and-go traffic for no more than 10 minutes. It was 85 degrees outside and I was running the A/C on the coldest setting (not Max) and the lowest fan speed. When I got off the highway and out of traffic, I noticed my temp was up to 230 degrees, so I turned off the A/C and the temp quickly fell back to around 206.

Does anyone have any idea why the car might be running so hot? I'm fairly sure the high-speed fan is working properly, so I don't think it's that.