New Radiator for all-motor Mach
 

Hi guys! I haven't been on here in YEARS, but I'm having an issue with cooling in my mach. Like a non-noob, I read up on as many old posts about cooling that I could find, but everyone in my power range has forced induction.

I'm putting 435/428 to the tires all motor and with the A/C on, the coolant temp (aftermarket sensor in crossover tube) creeped up to about 228 last summer before I shut the AC down in traffic. I'm running the stock radiator with a high-flow Stewart water pump, have the head-cooling mod, and am running the BOSS 5.0 block with improved cooling passages.

I've read good and bad things about Mishimoto and Fluidyne. I see that the Mishimoto is a double pass and the Fluidyne is a triple pass - is this indicative that the Fluidyne is going to work better for cooling the motor? At this point - cost isn't a factor, I'm just tired of the car running hot! Appreciate any insight you guys can provide!

Re: New Radiator for all-motor Mach
 

Are you sure there isnt something else going on ? what kinda compression and fuel are you running ?

Re: New Radiator for all-motor Mach
 

have you verified the high speed leg of the cooling fan is working correctly as well?

Re: New Radiator for all-motor Mach
 

Thanks for the replies guys!

Compression is 10.6:1 - running 93 octane

JPC (Justin's Performance Center in Maryland) set both the high/low speed fans and verified their operation. I'm going to have to take the tuner back over there to check exactly what temp they come on at - I can't remember

But just to be sure, since It has been a while since they built it - Is there a switch that triggers the high-speed fan function that I could check for? I guess that would be a much simpler solution than blindly dumping 400 bucks into a radiator and not having the issue solved.

Re: New Radiator for all-motor Mach
 

also what temp thermostat are you running ?

Re: New Radiator for all-motor Mach
 

you may well be in the same boat as me, Kevin from JPC is my tuner and we've discussed this a bit, these cars just dont have great air flow as its all blocked off by the bumper. He mentioned them having several new edge cars that run warm.

If you unplug the the connector to the cooling fan you can use a test light on the pins to see when it gives the low and high speed signal. Turning the AC on high should cause the high speed to come on in pretty short order as well. The CCRM controls everything (pass side fender well behind the liner), it changes fan speed based on coolant temp input from the sensor and AC controls.

the problem for us due to the air flow issue is that mostly a bigger radiator increases the amount of coolant which basically just takes the car longer to run to hot. Without more air flow to take the heat out its not really doing much unless there are issues with the current radiator (bent/clogged fins etc...)

I thinned down the coolant mix to as little antrifreeze as I can get away with (dont need much in FL), some water wetter and got a Mark 8 fan from a junkyard. It helped a little but didnt solve my issue, mine might just be an E85 only car when its hot out.

lastly I havent had time to research the subject but Ive seen it mentioned a few times that the specs of certain camshafts can lead to higher temps (sounds odd to me but figured Id throw it out there).

Re: New Radiator for all-motor Mach
 

Really good info - thanks for taking the time to type all that out. I'll have my buddy bring his test light over this weekend to check the pins out.

So - one piece of logic that a guy, who owns a radiator shop was telling me, is that if you use a "three-pass" radiator (I'm guessing that's the same as a 3-core), the coolant flows back and forth three times between going in and out of the radiator, so it stays in the radiator longer and gives the fans a longer time to pull the heat out of the coolant. According to that theory, it should work. In your experience, is this not the case?

What radiator are you running? With the water wetter and Mark 8 fans, how hot does yours run with the AC on? (if it still has it)

Re: New Radiator for all-motor Mach
 

I still have a stock radiator, with my procharger, 8rib and mark 8 fan (which I had to trim down the shroud) theres no room for a bigger radiator unless I go customer and have it offset so it eats up the room between the ac condenser and the radiator. All my changes did seem to help but I got it all wrapped up around the time it started cooling down some around here so it wasnt a completely accurate comparison

the 3 core/3 pass sounds like a reasonable theory, the only reason I can see why it might be entirely accurate is it may be that our current radiator might be capable of more as it is but doesnt have sufficient air flow/volume. The extra capacity and some gain from 3 pass may be part of it but it sounds like frequently guys who went bigger radiator just had a bigger window before it ran hot.

Re: New Radiator for all-motor Mach
 

Gotcha - Well thanks for all the info! I think I'll start making changes one by one and see what ends up working for me, now that I've got a few things to try out! I might get under the car to see if I could fab up a fresh air scoop for the bottom of the radiator support to angle some additional air up to the radiator. Also kind of curious about fabbing up some fans in the front to push some air through, or if that would end up blocking too much surface area and cause more of a problem than leaving it alone.

Re: New Radiator for all-motor Mach
 

ya i dont know how it would work trying to run pushers and pullers. I do know that most aftermarket fans move way less air than our stock fans. Make sure the factory pieces are in place that dam up around the radiator. Ive also seen people mention getting stuff from the garden section at lowes and making a new piece for under the radiator support - its taller and they make it go further to each side of the car to try and create a bigger low pressure zone behind the radiator to try and suck more air through...kinda forgot about that until just now but it likely wont help much at such low speeds

Also I should have mentioned, my runs warms sitting at lights and speeds under something like 40mph. When I get above that its got enough air to cool it back down closer to 200. I dont like it running the upper teens into the 20s.

Re: New Radiator for all-motor Mach
 

well darn.. another interesting thread i can partake in lol.. So my car was running warm as well and wanted to get hot before i changed and fixed a couple things with the help of my buddy(sic9250)

so my car has the following for cooling;
New Fluidyne triple pass radiator
Mezeire elec water pump
head cooling mod
new oem hoses and 185 stat
(Complete A/C system is removed)

due to the larger volume of coolant allowed i had extreme air in my system and took a crap tone of burping out of the crossover plug. but in the process also drilled multiple holes in the t-stat because oddly enough my lower hose was like sucking the hose to a shribble. I'd had never seen that before but then again this car has thrown me many curveballs haha.
I also turned my low/high speed fans on sooner because they were IMO set to come on way to high.

Now my car normally sits about 190ish but its also winter and 60* out. i had wondered because my compression is so high and the motor demands so much that i had something wrong but its great now.

btw, OP. Sick setup man, any vids or IG ?

Re: New Radiator for all-motor Mach
 

Thanks for the info! Yeah you can find me on IG @mustangmark302 have a couple videos and some pics of the car as well- I don't have any newer videos on youtube with the 5 liter, but this is one at the track with just bolt-ons https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCy1E696D4w

Re: New Radiator for all-motor Mach
 

I track my car a lot and it would get too warm in the summer time. The chin spoiler blocks most of the air that the deflector would normally shove to the radiator so I pop riveted a 4" piece of ABS over the OEM deflector and all is well.

Re: New Radiator for all-motor Mach
 

Awesome, I'm going to look into fabricating something along the same lines

Re: New Radiator for all-motor Mach
 

I used a black textured ABS and rounded the ends. Its only about 3" off the ground but because it's fixed to the OEM piece if you hit something it will fold up a little and not tear it off sorta like C5 Corvettes do. A while back I did tear it off because on an off track excursion due to a wheel breaking off the car and since I was at the track and had no large plastic pop rivets with me I just used zip ties to fix it to the OEM piece and have decided to leave it that way. Works great.

Re: New Radiator for all-motor Mach
 

IMO.:wall:.The hole in the bumper is just too small unlike the Cobra. If you increase the heat factor with a power adder the motor runs hot. Just no reserve cooling at that point unless you turn off or remove the AC .Using Water wetter , 3 pass rad. , lower stat, and HD water pump and bumper change all help.However, I decided to run nitrous because of the heating problems I had before in a 5.0 GT.

Re: New Radiator for all-motor Mach
 

That's weird about your lower coolant hose. I wonder if it had anything to do with you having the electric water pump? A lot higher flow or something?

Re: New Radiator for all-motor Mach
 

Even though these cars have a slot below the bumper and a more open grill they are still bottom feeders like a Fox. That's why they have a deflector under the radiator support although it get's blocked by the chin spoiler.

Re: New Radiator for all-motor Mach
 

pretty much a straight shot on mine haha..

https://c1.staticflickr.com/4/3945/3...7f30cb05_c.jpg

Re: New Radiator for all-motor Mach
 

He's talking about the lower slot. The mach1 has roughly the same upper grill opening.

Re: New Radiator for all-motor Mach
 

yea i know, but with the a/c condenser removed its pretty much a straight shot to the radiator like he mentioned as well.

Re: New Radiator for all-motor Mach
 

I suppose my car being really low in the front doesn't help with the chin spoiler blocking that airflow either!

Re: New Radiator for all-motor Mach
 

That was my experience. Don't know if it will fix yours but it will certainly help and it won't cost much .

Re: New Radiator for all-motor Mach
 

you have a picture of it?

Re: New Radiator for all-motor Mach
 

Those big intercoolers for centris and turbos will block a lot of air flow. For an n/a engine I don't see why a reische 170° thermostat and adjusted fan settings wouldn't do the trick. Those two changes keep my eaton charged car in the 170's when it's cool and the 180's when it's hot. Highest I've seen in the last two summers here was 197° while sitting still with the a/c running. And it only stayed there for a few seconds and dropped right back down. My car has the stock bumper, chin spoiler in place along with the stock air deflector underneath. I'm also lowered significantly and have the terminator heat exchanger in the lower opening.