[tmonster]

Everyone says when there car is at normal running temperature its half way between hot and cold on the gauge. On my car in the winter her (been between -10 and 20 degrees) I'm maybe a quarter of the way up, maybe half a centimeter about the C. Even with my eratic driving it never seems to make it to the halfway point. Its only made it halfway once this winter and thats when i did donuts and burnouts for at least half an hour. In the summer time it sits at the halfway mark...and will go as high as 3/4 if I have the A/C on going up some steep hills fast...Could my temp gauge just be flakey , thermostat slightly off, or is my antifreeze/coolant mixture just off? I've always been fussy about waiting until normal running temps to drive my car...specially now that it has 132k with still no problems( I'd like to keep it that way)...At the moment I have 20w50 Castrol Synthetic Blend oil(dont scream

I'm getting thinner oil this week, this was left over from warm weather)....................lalala

 

[silvapain]

When was the last time you replaced your t-stat? It should be replaced every couple years. Also, the cooling system is supposed to be flushed every other year (how many people really do that). Is there a large amount of debris around the radiator? My car never gets quite as high as half way, no matter what the temperature. I would replace the t-stat, and go from there. And, Twenty weight oil?????????

 

[Rockledge]

20W-50 oil and -10 to 20 degree temps? I'm screaming.

And you're Duratec probably wants to scream, too, every time you crank it when it's cold. Mornings must be particularly painful. Get that 20W-50 out of your engine, pronto.

Personally, I wouldn't use anything over a 5W in those temps...

 

[biteableniles]

Today, in 60 degree weather, my car (without AC on, ie, fans off) hit about 5/8's, maybe a little lower, but above half. Then, when I turned the AC on, it dropped to about 1/8.

Eh, I don't worry about it

 

[mikehawk]

Mine has been running low since the weather cooled down, too. (50-70*F ...burrr

). And if I'm on the highway, forget about it, I'm lucky if the damn thing sits at 1/4 on the higway. Stop and go in heavy traffic, it still doesn't make it up to halfway.

 

[jason8225]

It's sounding like the Duratec runs lower on the "arbitrary heat scale"

than vulcans. My vulcan runs just slightly above half way in this weather (about 10*F <_< ) but when it's warmer outside it runs slightly cooler - make any sense??

 

[sixfofalcon]

My temp never reaches the halfway mark. There is a reason why there is a wide band between HOT and COLD. Anywhere in that range is safe. Of course, if you are hugging the line on either extreme, something is wrong, but it is not damaging to the engine.

I would recommend a good synthetic 0W-30 with these cold temps. 5W-30 or 5W-20 is OK too.

 

[jason8225]

I am running Valvoline full synthetic 5w30

 

[mikehawk]

Am I remembering wrong info or does the duratec and SHO motors have the reverse cooling setup, where it cools the heads before the block? And I think the vulcan uses th old school set up where it cools the block, then the heads. Maybe that's why the vulcans seem to be running a little hotter.

 

[alex_perry]

I have a new t-stat, temp sending unit (for the gauge), and temp control unit (for the ecu) and i'm around a in normal.

 

[sixfofalcon]

Originally posted by mikehawk@Jan 22 2004, 10:19 AM
Am I remembering wrong info or does the duratec and SHO motors have the reverse cooling setup, where it cools the heads before the block? And I think the vulcan uses th old school set up where it cools the block, then the heads. Maybe that's why the vulcans seem to be running a little hotter.

I know the 3.4L uses the reverse coolant flow (heads first, then block.) I don't know about the Duratec.

 

[tmonster]

thanks guys, and I will be doing 0-30 shortly...and my duratec does scream...but in a good way....was pretty bad for that poor guy that thought he was special in his 328ci.....i think hit felt violated....my bad

 

[theman21]

I chased the heating issues too, but I am in nice warm/hot weather in southern california,where it is not uncommon in the summer to get to 100.
I was chasing a heating issue with my car for about 6 months after my engine swap and my UDP pulley from the SHOshop.
I did the following to "compensate for my heating issues"
Changed Radiator fans with high flowing 12 inch fans from perma-cool. pushes out more CFM.
Changed to a cooler thermostat to a 180. (if you guys know where we can get a 160 for the duratec let me know)
Changed all the hoses.(done at time of engine swap, this is expensive 600-700 bucks)
Changed temp sensor, overflow resivoir(had a small crack in it would only leak under high pressure), and the radiator/reservior cap.
I was running distilled water with redline in it.
I also was running a transcooler.
Even with all of these things my engine was running 1/2 way and then would climb up to 3/4 and if I was under heavy load with AC, uphill, and 4 people in the car it would try to creep up to the redline.
I was not happy with my cooling. My old engine with the transcooler hooked up independantly of the radiator(not in series) would run 1/4 and if it was really hot 1/2. My current heating issue I believe was attributed this to the UDP causing the water pump to spin slower and the new engine with much better compression thus producing more heat.
I was avoiding the obvoius(besides taking off the UDP), I neededto replace radiator. I had done recent flushes and it didn't seem to help that much. I know I didn't do a good job of flushing my system through the ownership of my car.
I even tried spraying my radiator with a high pressure nozzle to clean out any "gunk" in the fins. So I bit the bullet and decided to replace the radiator.
Some information for you taurus guys. The radiator is the same for all GL, duratec, and SHO models. It is a single core radiator. I hunted around because I wanted a dual core radiator, I could not find any. I could have had a special one made up but it would have cost around 500 dollers, and the space is pretty tight in there. You "could" squeeze a dual core in there but you would have to be careful.
Well I got a radiator from modine and spent the course of a week putting it in.
I also planned ahead and wanted to put in a oil cooler to help compensate for additional heating. Well I mounted the oil cooler but I have not hooked it up yet just becuase I wanted to put some better filtration on my oil, like a dual bypass oil filter.
After doing all this the engine runs at 1/4 on the highways and 1/2 in stop and go traffic. It can creep up a little past 1/2 but it is not that common.
The moral of the story is that after 190K miles if not sooner, its time to replace your radiator. I tried to avoid it but it does make a big difference. I accidently let my old one fall on its side and I was amazed on how much debris where in the fins even after hitting it with a high pressure nozzle(I think now the AC evaporator was deflecting the water from getting to the radiator). I have yet to crack it open and see if the radiator was gunked up inside.
Another side note I have noticed when the engine get hots like at the 1/2 mark the power seems to sag. When the engine is nice and cool It seems to have more kick to it. Could be a duratec thing. I'll keep you guys posted when I finally hook up my Oil Cooler. Hope this info is helpfull.
levi

 

[biteableniles]

QUOTE

Another side note I have noticed when the engine get hots like at the 1/2 mark the power seems to sag. When the engine is nice and cool It seems to have more kick to it. Could be a duratec thing. I'll keep you guys posted when I finally hook up my Oil Cooler. Hope this info is helpfull.[/b]

Haha, yeah, my car is the king of this; engine heat up, just a little bit, and all of a sudden, I have to floor it to even get it to move (and i don't mean "zoom zoom" move, I mean barely friggen creap out into the intersection move.) This seems to be spontaneous, although I think it may be because of something like the TPS overheating and freaking out. Who knows :-/

Oh, and I can beat you on the "crap in the radiator"; when our AC blew out the second time, the guy who put in the new evaporator told us that a birds nest fell out when he pulled it out. Hell if I know how it got there, but I do know that he wasn't able to get all the crap out of the radiator, even though he tried.

Stupid birds.