Hello everyone,thank you for always helping.
I was trapped in a traffic jam for about 20 minutes the other day and then the water temperature rised to the red zone.
After that as soon as I got out the traffic jam and ran, the water temperature returned to normal.
Is using electric cooling fan effective for water temperature rise?
Decades of experience:
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The answer is yes but
- there is a good stock alternative if your radiator is good (see previous post)
- if you use an electric fan you need a good one (not ebay special), correct fan controller and an upgraded alternator
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Usually engineering done by bubba has predictable results. The factory knew what they were doing. Often guys who modify their cars do not.
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Thank you, Mr. Knight717.
I’m going to watch this video now!
Thank you, Mr.Leon.
First of all, I will check the current state of my Cougar.
Thank you, Mr.Royce.
I don’t yet get a full picture of the current state of my Cougar because the several parts had refreshed and the engine had rebuilt in the US before I purchased.
I require knowledge of my Cougar!
Another thing to know about your 351C engine is that it requires a very specific kind of thermostat. Very few parts stores or mechanics will use the correct one. As a result, the coolant flow recirculates in the engine rather than flowing through the radiator to cool it. This caused mine to act like yours when stopped in traffic on a warm day.
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Thank you, Mr.Craig.
That’s very interesting! If the correct one is not installed, the coolant does not recirculates in every situation?
The water pump will always keep the coolant moving. It is supposed to recirculate through the engine when cold and then pass through the radiator when hot. But if the correct thermostat is not installed, the coolant recirculates through the engine both hot and cold. Since it doesn’t go through the radiator, it doesn’t get cooled. This is OK when cold, but not when hot.
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Front what I can tell the last photo, the shroud is too large for the fan…should be about a finger width between the outer edge of the blade and the shroud
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You have the same 5 blade fixed fan and 20" radiator that my Cougar had. They came that way on cars without air conditioning. Looks like air conditioning was added to yours, so you would definitely see an improvement going to the larger clutch fan and 24" 3- row radiator Don talks about in the video. But I would check the thermostat first - start with the smaller easier fixes.
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Now I’m thinking about upgrading a fan.
When the correct one isn’t installed, does the difference between the temperature upper hose and lower hose arise?
Spring in Japan is hot, so I’m searching frantically about how to verify.
I see you have a stock looking fan from the part numbers on it. Per Royce’s comments, the factory did it right with engineering. It’s the shroud that I would suspect is an aftermarket “close enough variety”. From the other comments about ac being added and a fixed fan, the radiator is for a non ac car from what I remember. I also see that the fan is all the way into the shroud. It should be half in/half out. You’ve got several things to check, but I wouldn’t see that you need an electric fan to make the car cool. Use all the stock parts for an ac car and you should be good to go (radiator, fan, shroud)
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With an infrared thermometer and hot engine, your lower radiator hose should be 30 degrees cooler than the upper. Mine runs 200 deg upper hose and 170 deg lower hose with car temp gauge around 1/2. When it was overheating, I was only seeing a 20 deg difference between hoses. I did lots of things to fix that:
high flow water pump
24" 3-row radiator with clutch fan and proper shroud
cleaned out coolant passages in block and heads
But when I got the car back after engine rebuild with all the new cooling components, they had put the wrong thermostat in and it was no better. When I put in the correct thermostat, the radiator temp drop went from 20 deg to 30 deg instantly.
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My electric fans work just fine. I’m holding steady at 175 (where I set the switch)
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My electric fans work just fine too. Dual 11” with PWM variable speed control based on radiator outlet temp, soft start, and 60 second run after key off. I replaced all cooling system components on my Cleveland in 2017-water pump, thermostat (correct style), hoses with lower hose spring, radiator (24” dual row aluminum).
What kind of alternator upgrade did you do?