quote:
Originally posted by Charlie McCall:
On another forum, we talked about "how do you really know if your car is overheating" and "how hot is too hot for a Pantera". The consensus was that if you have no boiling, then your car is probably ok. If you hear "blub blub", then you probably have a problem.
The first thing I'd do is replace the radiator cap. It's cheap, and if the cap is faulty, you don't have a pressurized system and you'll have boiling at 212 instead of higher. What you want to avoid is boiling, because it means little pockets of steam in the system, which means localized VERY hot spots in the heads. Increasing the pressure in the system may be able to eliminate the boiling.
If you have a good pressure cap and you still have boiling, then your problem lies elsewhere. But, to oversimply the (long) discussion we had, "boiling is bad".
I HAVE BEEN TALKING TO THE MUSTANG GUYS WHEN WE GO TO THE TRACK. THEY ARE PUTTING HIGHER
PRESSURE CAPS-FROM 19-25 LBS AND STATE THE CARS RUN COOLER. ONE RACERS STATED THAT FOR EVERY POUND OF PRESSURE YOU CAN CHANGE THE BOILING POINT BY 7 DEGREES. MY MECHANIC THINKS THAT THIS JUST PUTS MORE PRESSURE ON THE GASKETS, HOSES AND RADIATOR. WHAT IS THE PROPER SIZE CAP?? DOES IT GO ON THE RADIATOR AND PRESSURE TANK??? HOW MUCH CAN
YOU INCREASE THIS TO LOWER TEMP???
THEY ALL CLAIM IT HAS HELPED WITH OVERHEATING CARS. MY MUSTANG RUNS RIGHT AT 190 TO 200 ON THE TRACK WITHOUT INCREASING THE CAP SIZE. REMEMBER WE ARE RUNNING AT 6000 RPM UP AND DOWN FOR 20 MINUTE SESSIONS
WHICH IS DIFFERENT THAN NORMAL STREET DRIVING.
ANY THOUGHTS- BOB