Unfortunatly I was unable to attend the PI Christmas party. About 8 days before it, my brake master cylinder failed. Got a new one, bottle bleed the brakes, problem cured. As I was bleeding the right front cylinder, I noticed that my radiator had some bad corrosion on the right lower tank, and a very minor leak. So about 12/8 I pulled the radiator and brought to a shop for repairs. While the system was empty, I decided it was time to change the thermostat(weather it needed it or not). Well guess what guys, someone had installed the wrong type! As some of you may remember I was having cooling problems, temp gauge reading very high at times, but the radiator was cool. Well no wonder why, the thermostat was not blocking off the bypass port so not all of the coolent was being circulated!
Well, I got the correct thermostat from the Ford dealer, with the 3/8 hat on the bottom of it. Reinstalled the radiator, bleed all the air out several times and road tested. The car is now running right at 190 steady.
I did want to block off the bypass port, but I could not find a 3/8 brass freeze plug. In the factory shop manual, it actually shows a picture of installing a plug into this port during an engine rebuild....interesting.
Anyway, I wish all of you a safe, healthy Happy New Year.
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