I am the second owner of my '89 5.0 HO ragtop, and I've had it for about 3 years and 12,000 miles of sunny day driving. Since I have had it the needle on the temperature gauge has always been a little above halfway; and when I turned the A/C on it would slowly rise to the 2nd to the last line in the "normal" range. That's okay, I thought, I just won't use the air; however my lovely bride has a different opinion about running the air in "air you can wear" Houston, Texas. Recently driving it in Houston on a nearly 100 degree day the needle went almost to the top of the "normal" range. This is the first car I've had with headers, and the headers seem to throw a lot of heat into the engine compartment The coolant was good, the thermostat working as designed, the water pump was working well. I studied comments in Foxbody owners forums, and then read up on aftermarket radiators, electric fans, etc, etc, and, finally, read posts of folks who had made such mods, and was wary of all the hoopla and of spending up to a grand or more and still having the "running hot" problem, not an uncommon posting. I decided to stay basic... meaning as Ford designed it; I gave the fan a spin with the engine cold and it rotated a turn and a half. Hmmm. Then I drove it until it was hot, shut it off and gave it a spin, it was even easier to spin. When I pulled the fan clutch the from of it was covered with greasy black mud. I bought a new heavy duty fan clutch, and while I had the fan assembly out I power washed the condenser and radiator. End result, I thoroughly warmed the car up, ran the A/C, and idled while driving around the neighborhood and then got out on the main drag and ran the car through it's paces... I could not get the needle to go above one mark below halfway, it was rock steady, didn't waiver, like a good cooling system should. Altogether it took $75 and about an hour and a half including waiting 45 minutes for the autoparts store to open. On my 89 foxbody it took 10 bolts, and if you don't have access to a power washer pulling the fan, power washing the radiator and reinstalling the fan could be done surreptitiously in your local quarter carwash in about 30 minutes.
