Fluidyne - no change in temp !

Try adding Royal Purple's Purple Ice coolant additive. It dropped my temp about 15 - 20 degrees.

JimmyJ, I'm by no means an authority on the Pantera, but, I remember at least (1) thing about them........ which hit me when I got mine last year........ cooling.

Mine came with the (2) original fans, one was the upgraded one, the other the 4 blade, and just didnt cut it at all. (now Im in the Atlanta area where it can get hot, and humid). Pushing air into the radiator versus pulling it through just isnt the same. You can "feel" the difference in-fact.

I switched to (2) 12" sucker fans on the rear and there was a HUGE difference. I will still switch out the radiator to alum later this year fyi.

Now. Mine are individual Derale's, and are great. If I had to do it again I would look for a dual shrouded setup that would be more effective. (even though the derales are shrouded themselves). A dual shrouded has a much better coverage area.

Bob

First, ALL Pantera in-dash gauges read WRONG! They all need a resistor in the gauge line to calibrate them even close to correct, and even Ford specified two different values of resistor. Second, running a big radiator and stock fans will not change the laws of thermodynamics- the pathetic stock fans must be changed as well for stop-and-go driving, and you didn't mention this. Finally, properly bleeding a Pantera cooling system is difficult- are you sure all the air is out? I once did some rad work on my car and after two bleeds and 550 miles of driving to 'Vegas at speeds up to 140 mph, I got some air out on arrival.....

Jack........ Thats the word I was looking for... "Pathetic". Nice thing my PO did on the temp gauge was replace it with a mechanical and tap it the engine versus the coolant tank.


Bob

Thank you for your response. We know about the inaccurate gauge and the poor fan design, however we are very surprised that the larger radiator had no visable effect on the temp. Probably should have tried new fans on the stock rad. first.
Jimmy.

At idle or in heavy traffic, airflow through a Pantera radiator is so low that little heat-exchanging takes place. Also at low speeds, the water flow from engine to radiator & back is also slow. So almost regardless of radiator size, with a set of stock fans (which I once measured @t 300 cubic ft per minute of airflow each) you just can't get enough air through the system especially with a modified engine, so your temperature will begin to climb. Increasing airflow with bigger fans (the popular Flexilites move nearly 4x that of stock), moving them to the back of the radiator with a full shroud so the whole rad surface is involved, not just the area directly in front of the fans, different pumps with more efficient impellers & different pully ratios- all help to a point. On my wife's '97 Z-28, its rad has a single sucker fan that doesn't come on until 230 degrees and the gauge doesn't register 'hot' until 245! In traffic, the Z-28 regularly gets up to 245F with little effect. By changing the early 0-220 Pantera gauge to the '73-up 0-260 gauge and calibrating it, one can see whats really happening. So with a tight system, all the air bled out, if you cannot hear the rumbling of boiling water in the pipes below the floor, the engine is not unhappy regardless of the drivers state of mind. The Pantera radiator's size is some 15% smaller than an equivalent Corvette (which is tilted back, not fwd), so in many cases, accepting that the Pantera will simply run a little hot in traffic is realistic & seems to do no harm.

I have a funky setup, but it works. My car is equipped with two radiators. The second is in the rear, a mitsubisi unit , twin fans shroded. Runs cool no matter what. Email me and I will send a pic. Bill

Off the beaten path but another cause to a hot engine is a lean fuel condition. If your carb is jetted too lean it will run hot placing additional strain on your cooling system.