I have a Windstar van (or BreakWindstar) and it’s almost impossible to tell when it has a blown head gasket. After countless new heads and a couple of engines, you just learn that if it over-heats it’s the head gasket.

I don’t know if a slant has any tell-tale signs to look for or not. They don’t always blow steam or water out the tail pipe. Sometimes the radiator coolant will smell like exhaust. Look for water on the plugs after it’s been hot and cooled down.

It may not be the problem. A blown gasket, a cracked head or a cracked block can make them heat up fast.

Danny

Go through this post to look for causes of overheating. I think your block may have built up an insulating "jacket" of crud and mud and need manual/physical cleanout. You should definitely not (and should definitely not need to) run the electric fans whenever the engine's running, nor should you have to resort to a too-cold thermostat as you have installed. Something's the matter and needs found and fixed.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

jeannegirl,

Running the right mix of antifreeze certainly has helped my car run at a steadier average temp especially on long trips with a load.

The pusher fan could be blocking allot of flow and if the cfm is not high enough will it will run warm.

I know about crud in the engine. I had mine acid cleaned during the rebuild and they took out 1 1/2 coffee cans of junk out of the block. Will water easily flow out of the rear brass water jacket drain plug? If not, that is a good indication of the state of your water jacket.

I have about 3.5" between the water pump and the radiator. I have found that the Pro Comp 16 INCH ELECTRIC COOLING FAN, 16" PRO SERIES sold on eBay will fit nicely between the radiator and pump. On hot days, 95 plus it will come on while in traffic, but shut off as long as I am cruising over 40 mph. I am running a 180 thermostat and it stays right at 180 until I am in stop and go traffic. Then it climbs to 220 degrees at the radiator and the switch kicks on and cools it back down to 180. The engine temp is about 10 to 15 degrees cooler than the radiator tank temps.

Send me your email and I will send you some install pictures and ebay info. for the fan, my simple wiring diagram and the GM temp switch info I am using.

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Aggressive Ted

http://cid-32f1e50ddb40a03c.photos.live ... %20Swinger


74 Swinger, 9.5 comp 254/.435 lift cam, 904, ram air, electric fans, 2.5" HP2 & FM70 ex, 1920 Holley#56jet, 2.76 8 3/4 Sure-Grip, 26" tires, 25+MPG

Hello,

my /6 225 c.i. Supersix Dodge 3700 GT used to overheat a lot. I cleaned with radiator flush the system (2 cycles). A lot of dirt went out. It overheat less but the problem went on there. Then I cleaned the radiator (with special wires). It was partially clogged. The radiator workshop adviced to throw it away but as it´s part of a classic car they did the job more carefully to avoid breaking some of the inner ducts. Then, the car overheat less. It had a problem with the crankshaft so we took the engine out and cleaned the inner ducts in the head. More dirt had to be taken out. Then the overheatting problem was solved.

The problem was that the man who sold me the car (using it for 20 years) used to fill the system with water , a water with lots of lime and other nasty stuff (rusting the cooling system), as the car was progressively overheatting and puking coolant, so he had always cans of water in the trunk to refill the system (very cheap in the short term but incredibly expensive in the long term).

As my car has automatic transmission and A/C when I switched on A/C the temperature raised considerably. In Spain Dodges with and without A/C had the same radiator, and it hardly does its work with no A/C units. In addition, the automatic version radiator has to cool the hydraulic fluid from the transmission, so one friend did a trick that worked very well: With some washers got the fan some milimeters closer to the radiator. The air flow is now much powerful and cooling has improved a lot.

In addition, we mounted an electric fan between the grill and the radiator. It turns on with the A/C system and also when temperature indicator goes higher than usual (92-95º Centigrade). This was a common solution in the last times when the Dodge 3700 GT was still an everyday car.

Now my Dodge could do the Paris-Dakar race with no overheatting problem