Build Thread My First Notch Build Thread - Remember me?!

[JeffC]

Get some airplane grade paint remover. That will remove the powdercoat.
Most automotive paint supply stores carry it.
Just apply, let it bubble then wipe off.

 

[JeffC]

I

 

[stangboy]

Hey guys! Remember me?! Guess what I did? I FINALLY drove my car!!! All week I've been dealing with slight overheating. Thursday I figured out that it was the thermostat. It wasn't opening. So I replaced that. Then I realized I had the fan wired backwards. How the fck did I manage to do that? Switched the wiring around and it was blowing in the right direction. So I took her on here maiden voyage. It was 90-something degrees outside so I figured if it holds good temperature in that it can handle anything. Well it stayed at around 195 the whole ride...until the fuse on the relay board blew, but by that time I was a block away from my house. At this point I'm thinking the fan isn't blowing at high speed. I have a Lincoln Mark VIII fan and the harness has 2 black wires and 1 blue wire. 1 of the black wires is ground, 1 is power and the blue wire is also power. I tested both power wires separately but they seemed to be the same speed. Well last night I thought about powering both of the power wires together to see if it turned faster. It was late to figured I'd do it today at work. I was going to trailer it to work to work on it but my buddy wasn't home for me to get the trailer. I decided I was going to drive the car to work. Its about 8-10 miles mostly on the interstate.

So at 6:20 this morning, I probably woke my next door neighbor(little old lady), and set out on the car's first trip on the interstate in 5 years. The temp outside was in the high 60s with fairly low humidity so I figured it wouldn't run hot. It stayed at 180* the whole ride on the interstate. But when I got off the temp started creeping back up over 195* in just the 5 blocks it took me to get to my firehouse. When pulled into the yard I turned the car off but turned the key on so the fan would stay on while I test my theory with the fan wiring. While the fan was running I touched the blue wire to the + battery post and the fan sped up.

I still have some blow-by and I'm sure it's because the PCV system can't handle the crankcase pressure. Though I don't understand why because my engine is N/A with low compression(~9:1). Anyway, I bought a breather cap last night to replace the oil fill cap. I thought it was the solution to the problem because there was no smoke coming out of the driver side tailpipe like there was yesterday after the drive on the street. But when I did a cold start this afternoon there was a puff of blue smoke when it first started. While working on the car today I noticed there was a good bit of oil in the the throttle body and the powerpipe. So obviously I need a breather/catch can system. So is there something else wrong or is the PCV system only meant to handle the crankcase pressure of a bone stock 302? I thought high compression and forced induction setups needed breather/catch can systems. @madmike1157 I know you're dealing with this situation...but you have forced induction so why am I having these same issues with my low compression N/A 363?

Any input would be greatly appreciated, guys.

Oh, one other thing. After the dyno fiasco in March I had to buy a new fan controller...along with several other things. Well after getting the fan to work at high speed today I set the controller to turn the fan on at about 195*. It cooled it down perfectly but the fan never cut off before I turned the car off when it got down to 165*. Earlier this week I blew 2 fuses on the relay board because of the fan not cutting off. Do you think my controller is faulty? It's a Derale controller. The sensor is one that screws into one of the coolant temp sensor openings in the lower intake. That should be more accurate than the probe that goes in the radiator fins(like my last controller used). I have to reread the instructions but IIRC the fan should cut off when the temp gets 15* below what it's set to come on. The last time I checked going from 195* to 165* is 30*.

 

[Davedacarpainter]

Well crap Craig, i can't help you one bit my friend!

It sure is good to hear from you though buddy. Driving it is a big step from where you were. Hopefully, in the morning, the guys will be in here to assist.

Are you doing well?

 

[CarMichael Angelo]

Hey guys! Remember me?! Guess what I did? I FINALLY drove my car!!! All week I've been dealing with slight overheating. Thursday I figured out that it was the thermostat. It wasn't opening. So I replaced that. Then I realized I had the fan wired backwards. How the fck did I manage to do that? Switched the wiring around and it was blowing in the right direction. So I took her on here maiden voyage. It was 90-something degrees outside so I figured if it holds good temperature in that it can handle anything. Well it stayed at around 195 the whole ride...until the fuse on the relay board blew, but by that time I was a block away from my house. At this point I'm thinking the fan isn't blowing at high speed. I have a Lincoln Mark VIII fan and the harness has 2 black wires and 1 blue wire. 1 of the black wires is ground, 1 is power and the blue wire is also power. I tested both power wires separately but they seemed to be the same speed. Well last night I thought about powering both of the power wires together to see if it turned faster. It was late to figured I'd do it today at work. I was going to trailer it to work to work on it but my buddy wasn't home for me to get the trailer. I decided I was going to drive the car to work. Its about 8-10 miles mostly on the interstate.

So at 6:20 this morning, I probably woke my next door neighbor(little old lady), and set out on the car's first trip on the interstate in 5 years. The temp outside was in the high 60s with fairly low humidity so I figured it wouldn't run hot. It stayed at 180* the whole ride on the interstate. But when I got off the temp started creeping back up over 195* in just the 5 blocks it took me to get to my firehouse. When pulled into the yard I turned the car off but turned the key on so the fan would stay on while I test my theory with the fan wiring. While the fan was running I touched the blue wire to the + battery post and the fan sped up.

I still have some blow-by and I'm sure it's because the PCV system can't handle the crankcase pressure. Though I don't understand why because my engine is N/A with low compression(~9:1). Anyway, I bought a breather cap last night to replace the oil fill cap. I thought it was the solution to the problem because there was no smoke coming out of the driver side tailpipe like there was yesterday after the drive on the street. But when I did a cold start this afternoon there was a puff of blue smoke when it first started. While working on the car today I noticed there was a good bit of oil in the the throttle body and the powerpipe. So obviously I need a breather/catch can system. So is there something else wrong or is the PCV system only meant to handle the crankcase pressure of a bone stock 302? I thought high compression and forced induction setups needed breather/catch can systems. @madmike1157 I know you're dealing with this situation...but you have forced induction so why am I having these same issues with my low compression N/A 363?

Any input would be greatly appreciated, guys.

Oh, one other thing. After the dyno fiasco in March I had to buy a new fan controller...along with several other things. Well after getting the fan to work at high speed today I set the controller to turn the fan on at about 195*. It cooled it down perfectly but the fan never cut off before I turned the car off when it got down to 165*. Earlier this week I blew 2 fuses on the relay board because of the fan not cutting off. Do you think my controller is faulty? It's a Derale controller. The sensor is one that screws into one of the coolant temp sensor openings in the lower intake. That should be more accurate than the probe that goes in the radiator fins(like my last controller used). I have to reread the instructions but IIRC the fan should cut off when the temp gets 15* below what it's set to come on. The last time I checked going from 195* to 165* is 30*.

Well Craig a couple of things..

You said maiden voyage....how many miles are on the engine where it has seen enough load to seat the rings?
You said 363...How did we get the there bore and stroke wise?
( are the oil rings sitting on a special button that covers the pin?)

Are the rings " low tension" like my pieces of sht are?

Every engine needs a PCV system. Every engine will build crankcase pressure as a result of blow by. Some more, some less. A lot of that depends on the answers to the questions above.
You may have to take a more dedicated approach to controlling your PCV, especially if there's oil inside the throttle body.

A drag car can usually get away with a breather on each valve cover, although it typically makes a mess of them. Most guys will run lines from the breathers over to a dedicated catch can w/ a breather, and then ck, and drain it periodically.

 

[mikestang63]

Some un the high speed. MKVII fans are one speed and some are two speed.. If yours is two speed.I wouldnt bother running hte low speed- just run the high speed. Make sure the polarity is right so the fan is pulling not pushng.. Use at least 10 g wiring. For a controller, I like the flex a lite 33054 unit. I have it in a few cars. You want a soft start up controller sn start uo the fan doesnt shcok the sytem on statt up, that is why you are blowing fuses.

what temp stat did you install? I hope a factory 192

You need to run the factory PCV system, unless you run breathers with catch cans. It's one or teh other

 

[stangboy]

Well Craig a couple of things..

You said maiden voyage....how many miles are on the engine where it has seen enough load to seat the rings?
You said 363...How did we get the there bore and stroke wise?
( are the oil rings sitting on a special button that covers the pin?)

Are the rings " low tension" like my pieces of sht are?

Every engine needs a PCV system. Every engine will build crankcase pressure as a result of blow by. Some more, some less. A lot of that depends on the answers to the questions above.
You may have to take a more dedicated approach to controlling your PCV, especially if there's oil inside the throttle body.

A drag car can usually get away with a breather on each valve cover, although it typically makes a mess of them. Most guys will run lines from the breathers over to a dedicated catch can w/ a breather, and then ck, and drain it periodically.

Mike the stroke is 3.400 and bore is 4.125. Its a Dart Sportsman block. I don't remember the details of the rings. I'll have to go find my receipt for the pistons and rings.

 

[stangboy]

Some un the high speed. MKVII fans are one speed and some are two speed.. If yours is two speed.I wouldnt bother running hte low speed- just run the high speed. Make sure the polarity is right so the fan is pulling not pushng.. Use at least 10 g wiring. For a controller, I like the flex a lite 33054 unit. I have it in a few cars. You want a soft start up controller sn start uo the fan doesnt shcok the sytem on statt up, that is why you are blowing fuses.

what temp stat did you install? I hope a factory 192

You need to run the factory PCV system, unless you run breathers with catch cans. It's one or teh other

The controller has the soft touch startup but I also have a Leash single relay board wired in. The fuse(not the relay) is what keeps blowing. Its a Maxy fuse(I think thats what its called) its a little box with a window on top. I'm use a 40A. I got the polarity correct after realizing it was pushing instead of pulling the other day.

I have the stock PCV system in place, I just put a breather cap on the oil fill tube. It replaced the cap.

I guess if I have to put a catch can setup on the car I need both valve covers to have bungs. I was looking at the setup that UPR sells and it looks like it ties into the stock PCV system. I'll go back and look at it again to be sure tho.

 

[stangboy]

Well crap Craig, i can't help you one bit my friend!

It sure is good to hear from you though buddy. Driving it is a big step from where you were. Hopefully, in the morning, the guys will be in here to assist.

Are you doing well?

Thanks Dave!

 

[stangboy]

Well I bought an oil catch can. I found one on Amazon for half the price of the UPR catch can. It seems like pretty good quality. It looks nice and has beautiful welds. Of course I forgot to take a pic of it before I installed it. The only place I had space to install it was inside the passenger fender well where the stock air filter got its air from.

The car runs noticeably better. It idles better and it runs better overall.

As for my other ongoing issue, controlling my fan, has been extremely irritating to say the least. Apparently 12g wire wasn't heavy enough to handle the current that was running through them. Which was probably/maybe/still unsure, is causing my issues with the fan coming on at the temp it was supposed to but not cutting off when it got 10* below that temp. Which caused the fuse on the relay board to blow because it would get too hot. After talking to @TOOLOW91 I figured out that I had things wired backwards. But by the time I changed things around it was kinda too late. When I changed the wiring around I noticed that the relay board was all warped and distorted from all the heat the was generated by the current passing through those wires constantly. And the controller still didn't cut the fan off once it came on. The water temp got to almost 220 the last time I drove the car(Friday evening) because once again the fuse blew. You can see in the pic of my catch can how distorted the side of the relay board is and the discoloration on the wire connector. In the pic everything was still wired wrong. I changed the wiring around after I took that pic.

 

[stangboy]

Oh, I wasn't finished.

So what I will be doing now is using a manual switch to control my fan until I gather up enough pennies to get a set of contour fans and a new controller. I ordered another relay board to wire my switch through. Hopefully that will be in by the beginning of next week. I will rewire everything with 10g wire...maybe even 8g.

 

[Davedacarpainter]

I’m a long way off from that stage Craig, but now I’ll remember it when I get there.

At least you got it figured out now, hopefully you’ll finally have time to really enjoy that new engine of yours.

 

[TOOLOW91]

I have 8 GA i believe from the controller to the solenoid with a 100 a breaker in the power wire. and then 10 ga from the fans to controller as that is what the wire size is off the contour plug connectors .

 

[bird_dog0347]

I've got the same fan and I use the DCC controller, and it works great with my SVE radiator and 180 thermostat. There is a wait for them when you order as they are usually built to order and communication from the guy sucks but now is the time as he's very busy in the summer.

http://www.dccontrol.com/relay_controllers.htm

 

[90sickfox]

That breather looks familiar... I've got the same one mounted in the same location.

For the money its very hard to beat.

Keep an eye on the screen for the breather on top. Its not stainless and will rust. Mine has been holding up well for a few months now.

 

[stangboy]

I've got the same fan and I use the DCC controller, and it works great with my SVE radiator and 180 thermostat. There is a wait for them when you order as they are usually built to order and communication from the guy sucks but now is the time as he's very busy in the summer.

http://www.dccontrol.com/relay_controllers.htm

Yeah I've ordered from him before.

 

[stangboy]

That breather looks familiar... I've got the sane one mounted in the same location.

For the money its very hard to beat.

Keep an eye on the screen for the breather on top. Its not stainless and will rust. Mine has been holding up well for a few months now.

I'll definitely keep an eye on it with the damp climate we have here. A lot of stuff(ARP bolts and a few other things) had surface rust on my engine before I was even close to starting it for the first time. Even my oil pan had oxidation on it.

 

[stangboy]

I've got the same fan and I use the DCC controller, and it works great with my SVE radiator and 180 thermostat. There is a wait for them when you order as they are usually built to order and communication from the guy sucks but now is the time as he's very busy in the summer.

http://www.dccontrol.com/relay_controllers.htm

So those controllers eliminate the need for a separate relay/relay board?

 

[General karthief]

That breather looks familiar... I've got the sane one mounted in the same location.

So he has the one that insane?

 

[90sickfox]

Yup...'xactly...