I have a 91 lx mustang with a built 347. It has trick flow heads with a trick flow stage 2 cam and edelbrock intake. I has a 70mm turbo setup on it and is backed by a c4. When the 347 was first put in it was naturally aspirated and never ran over 180 degree's. As soon as we put the turbo on it it has gotten hot every since. I'm at the end of my rope with trying to cool the down. It has the stock water pump on it right now. I have ran it with a 160, 180, 195 and no thermostat with no changes. It previously had a csr electric water pump on it and that didn't help either. It has an after market radiator in it that's new with no change and I'm running a dual mercury cougar fan. Nothing seems to help this car that I've done. I have also changed guages with no help. I am running a mix of 70/30 water/antifreeze in it now with water wetter right now. The car runs about 230 just cruising and about 250 if you hit any boost at all. The temp climbs really fast on it also. I can start the car up after siiting all night and just get in it and leave with no warm up and it will be up over half way on the guage in less than a mile. I have done a leak down and there is no indication of a leaking or blown head gasket. Anyone have any idea's that I haven't thought of yet?

 

What does your timing look like. My car ran hot when it was locked at 20 degrees? Do you have an intercooler in front of the rad? Have you verified coolant flow through the rad? Are the fans hooked up right?

 

Is it a water cooled turbo? Did you touch the cooling system? Overheatin in less than a mile is serious. Also, have you verified the temp? The sensor could be bad or getting heat soaked. Check it with a temp gun. Last car I saw overheating that quick belonged to the local rice king. He had a crx with some head swap and put the wrong head gasket on, blocking the water ports in the engine...

 

Turbo is not water cooled. The intercooler is in front of the radiator. There are holes cut in the bumper and it also has a svo cowl hood on it to get rid of the heat. The temp sensors have been changed with the same result. I have not verified the temp with a temp gun. I will do that though. Where is the best place to check the heat to get an accurate reading? Timing is set at base 10 degrees with the spout out. Not sure on overall timing. I will have to check with the tuner. I am running the pt 9333 head gaskets. Fans are pulling in towards the motor.

 

Sounds like a blown HG. If it's showing hot in less than a mile of drive time, then you're pumping air into the system.

 

What about big air pockets in the cooling system dosent that cause steam and make sit get hotter faster? I know my dad had kind of the same problem with one of his cars... just a thought?

 

We used bled the crap out of it already. Something I should mention is when it's colder outside like around 50 degree's the car's temp won't go above about a 140 degree's. That's what has me confused. If it was a blown head gasket I would think it would get hot no matter what the outside temp is.

 

Is ur compression ratio high? and maybe just the added boost is making run real hot? just trying ideas here!

 

Check the temp of the hose going in and out of the radiator(with thermostat open and coolant flowing). If you put your hand on the upper radiator hose it should start getting hot and pressure should build up, this means the thermostat is open. There should be a substantial drop in temp across the upper and lower hose, if so then the radiator is working. Then id check temp right at the coolant temp sensor(just the aluminum where it screws in) that should give you a really rough guess. If those seem okay then its probably going to be a head gasket.

 

What he said and try re bleeding the sytem if u have more air bubbles then most deff ur head gasket is gone!

 

When my car was getting hot I took out the thermostat and it wouldn't get above 130. I've had my coolant sensor lay over on the header and it would jack up really quick in about 1-2 min. In 1 mile your t-stat probably shouldn't even be open, grab the top hose and feel if its hot.

 

10* locked with the spout out is way too retarded timing. That could be contributing..... during normal cruise you should 30-40s on timing

 

10 degree's with the spout out is base timing. 30 to 40 degree's is way to high I think. Overall timing in the tune is I think around 25 degree's with the spout in.

 

Idle, part throttle, and wot all have their own timing curves. 30-40 is normal for cruise and part throttle accel. At wot you want less to help prevent detonation. 25 degrees under boost is a lot. But this has nothing to do with the car overheating so quickly. Ten degrees with spout out is factory spec, I think the a9l adds 26 on top of that stock for wot. Its been a while since.I looked at the stock binary in my tuner

 

This might sound dumb; maybe the tourqe converter clutch is locked (basicly won't disengage). And if I'm not mistaken that causes an overheat issue. I think they also have a front diffuser that helps direct or displace air towards the radiator to help cool it, and these useually get tossed because they look un-important. However they actully are a really important part in cooling. In case you don't happen to know what a diffuser is; it's a black plastic lip that is attached to the bottom of the radiator core support, anyways good luck with the .

 

I'm going to second this. It sounds like there is an air pocket somewhere in the motor. When you changed Rads did you "burp" the system afterward. I had a problem with a SBC in my old RX7. The motor sat lower that the rad cap and it trapped air. I ended up removing the temp sensor in the manifold and refilling the motor. With the air pocket it would heat up to 200F in just a couple of blocks and over heat in mile.

 

If the clutch was locked the car would stall at a stop. Its the same as not taking a manual car out of gear and stopping