Checking the water temperature

We Pantera owners as a group worry too much, I believe. 190-230 degrees, if thats a real reading, is ideal. My wife's '97 Z-28 grocery-getter runs 225 ALL the time around town; the fans don't even come on until 240 and redline temp is 250! The Italian gauges & US-made senders are often incompatible, so the water temp and oil pressure need to be calibrated if you must know what the real measurement is. There are two senders (same p/n) one made in Europe and one in the US (or maybe Taiwan) and will give different results. There are two stock gauges- 0-230/'71-72 and 0-260/'73-up. The senders give varying readings with the two gauges. Bourdon-tube mechanical gauges are cheaper & more accurate than stock electric gauges but are difficult to plumb in and only look 'right' if you exchange the gauge faces off the stock instruments- a difficult job.

Wes,

I would recommend using a small cooking thermomiter in the expansion tank and check it againt your gauge. I found that when my gauge was reading 190 the thermomiter read 163. I had checked it after the car had cooled eneough to safely remove the expansion tank cap. You can check the accuracy of the thermomiter by bringing a pot of water to boil and seeing if it reads 212.

I am dealing with the same delemma as you and wondered what you thought of the fluidyne radiator and what you paid for it and where you purchased it from. Also did it lower your running temperature?

Jim

Jim,

My radiator was shot to begin with, but I feel buying the Fluidyne was worth it. ($450 for just the radiator--no connectors, no sensors) I also bought the series 210 Flex-a-Lite fans, which has a shroud that covers the entire radiator. I laid the radiator forward about 3.5" and placed the fans on the backside. I also used the rheostat that came with the fans to control them. I hooked it and the supplied fuse directly to the battery so the fans will still run for a while when the car is shut off. They will run for about 3 minutes, then shut down when the temperature gets below a certain point. With all that done, the car still ran too hot until I took the advice of another Pantera owner. This is what he did and I just blindly took his advice: I blocked the bypass hole in the block just below the thermostat with a freeze plug, then replaced the stock 192deg Ford thermostat with a small block Chevy 160deg thermostat. That modification made a world of difference. As everyone knows, the engine runs hot to begin with; so making the thermostat open at 160deg seemed like the correct thing to do. Since I live in South Florida and it's always warm here anyway I figured that I don�t really need to force the cooling fluid through the block before the thermostat opens.

There seems to be a fine line of either slowing down the movement of cooling fluid too much or moving it through the system too fast. Some people have tried to make the water pump go faster and move more fluid, but that may not be a good solution. I tried running my car with no thermostat at all, but that didn't work out too well. The radiator never had a chance to cool the fluid because it was simply circulating too fast. I think I have finally got the right combination and I going to stick with it unless someone gives me some advice not to leave it this way. My car runs at 190 to 200 all the time now. I don't know where you live, but you may not be able to run a 160deg thermostat if it's in a colder part of the country.

Let me know how things work out.

Wes

Thanks for the info. I am always looking for more info, like anyone else whith these cars. I will keep an eye in it and may just try some different things. The only thing is that when I tried the stock thermostat with the new radiator and fans, I still ran too hot. I might have overlooked something.

FYI, I run a plugged bypass hole as do many Pantera owners (since 1989 on this engine). Some aftermarket aluminum waterpumps such as the popular Weiand unit have no bypass passage, which does the same thing. I run a 190 thermostat, and had 190-200 degree water all the way to 'Vegas last year (550 miles one way). While at 'Vegas, I added a 160 theermostat as an experiment. Drove home with 190-200 degrees showing on the calibrated gauge. Conclusion: thermostats don't raise nor lower the 351C engine temperature on long runs. But with a plugged bypass, you can use about any V-8 thermostat you can find. Mine is currently for a 289 Mustang which is easier to find on the road than the special 351-C unit.