Overheating problems with my Pantera

ELECTRONIC OR ELECTRIC WATER PUMP???(I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF AN "ELECTRONIC" PUMP.) IF ELECTRIC, THAT MAY WELL BE YOUR PROBLEM AS ELECTRIC WATER PUMPS ARE INTENDED FOR DRAG STRIP USE ONLY. (WHERE YOU WOULD HAVE A 9 SEC. RUN AND THEN SHUT DOWN. AND THEN WOULD PUMP WATER PAST ELECTRIC FANS.) AND YOU WOULD BE COUNTING AND STRIPPING GRAMS OF WEIGHT OFF OF YOUR CAR. AN ELECTRIC PUMP MOVES MUCH TO SLOWLY WITH NOT ENOUGH WATER FLOW TO COOL A MACHINE IN CONSTANT STREET OR HIGHWAY DRIVING.I WOULD PUT IN A WIEAND ALUMINUM PUMP AND BE SURE TO KEEP THE DRIVE PULLEY LARGE AND THE DRIVEN PULLEY SMALL(STOCK SIZE), SO AS TO KEEP THE PUMP SPEED AS FAST AS POSSIBLE.AND IF YOU ARE STILL RUNNING THE STOCK ELECTRIC FANS, YOU REALLY NEED TO UPDATE TO MORE AIR FLOW. ALL THE BEST, MARLIN.

Your Pantera should not overheat, but without examining it, I can't say- the possibilities are many, and some are expensive. What area do you live in? I can recommend a local expert to look it over & give you an estimate, but long-distance diagnosis on such sparse info is impossible, I'm afraid. Sorry.

Hi Marlin,
Thank you for your reply
Im actuly running the electric pump to increase the flow back to the engine due to the reason that the water initialy was flowing to slow and i had problems trying to bleed the cooling system now with that pump i can get the air out.
Ive tried running a bigger (Drive pully) but i put the standed one back on because i had to cut into the car, so i supose i better try that.

Best Regards,

Peter Anastas

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Keep in mind the the stock Pantera temperature gauge often lies about the temp it sees; don't believe everything your gauges tell you unless they've been correctly calibrated.

There's a large number of things that affect the gauge reading: water level, which gauge and sender combination, sender placement, etc. If its not spitting coolant, the engine is not too hot and you need not worry.

If it is spitting coolant, first thing I'd check is to make sure your cooling system has been bled properly. Air in your cooling system will certainly cause your car to overheat.

Bob Eaton

Forgot to add. Chuck Melton, AKA Mike Dialey, has an OUTSTANDING section on the Pantera cooling system in his website.

Be sure and check it out.

Go to: http://geocities.com/provamo72/
then click on : Technical Information Page
then click on: Cooling

This is gonna sound simplistic, but I had the same problem with a 302 in a car I run in Las Vegas. After messing with pumps, fans, hoses, etc....I finally pressure tested the radiator cap. It was new so I assumed it was holding pressure. WRONG! I replaced it with one (tested) that keeps the system under correct pressure, and not one overheat since. Ya just never know.

Excellent point. A defective cap will allow air into a perfectly bled system (if there is such a thing). Creating a vicious cycle.

One of the many possibilities for overheat is, the stock Italian surge tank neck is longer than a comparable US neck, so a 13-lb US cap will release at much lower than 13 psi. Euro caps are longer than US caps. Additionally, the base of the stock tank neck is usually rough, making good sealing impossible. The effect is, it may seal water as the block heats up and pushes water into the overflow tank. But when the engine cools down, the combination of a short cap & rough seal base cannot hold the vacuum produced, so it sucks air in instead of water from the overflow. The next time you run the engine, the water level is low and the engine gets hotter. After about 2 cycles of this, the engine overheats & there is no trace of a water leak; very frustrating. Finally, when the engine overheats and begins to spit coolant out of the surge tank, the design is such that the coolant runs down the inner fender panel right into a large access hole in the rt lower frame rail, where it sits forever & rusts. As I said, there are many potential causes of overheating, plus some unintended consequenses.

Davies Craig currently sell an electric water pump for street use which is guaranteed for some 20,000 hours. I currently run one in my 1974 GTS with no mechanical water pump at all and temperature rarely gets above 210 degrees.
Also, one problem of spinning a mechanical water pump too fast is cavitation.

If you still have over heating problems Iam98% sure I can give you the right info to solve the problem.Iv been there!my car ran hot and and I tried many suggestions that had little or no effect. Finally i got the right information and it worked better than I hope for. my car now runs the best than it ever has, the electric fans rarely come on. If you still need to I can email you the procedure it's fairly simple and very effective.

quote:

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Originally posted by washo:

Davies Craig currently sell an electric water pump for street use which is guaranteed for some 20,000 hours. I currently run one in my 1974 GTS with no mechanical water pump at all and temperature rarely gets above 210 degrees.
Also, one problem of spinning a mechanical water pump too fast is cavitation.

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What did you do with the space left by the mechanical w/p, any pictures?

If all else fails you can add a small radiator in the rear of the car as my last one had, I had zero overheating problems. It actually ran a little too cool. I've since sold that car and may add on on my new one.

quote:

Originally posted by Wataboutbob:
Forgot to add. Chuck Melton, AKA Mike Dialey, has an OUTSTANDING section on the Pantera cooling system in his website.

Be sure and check it out.

Go to: http://geocities.com/provamo72/
then click on : Technical Information Page
then click on: Cooling

I think they are two different people. Mike Dailey’s site is http://www.panteraplace.com/

Yeah,

Mike's a little taller and a little bit older!

LOL.....................

You are running a EFI system. How does the O2 sensor look? Are you running in a good range where the engine is not too lean nor too rich? From experience, too lean will cause a engine to run hot real quick, less of a problem of sightly over rich. EFI's are a bitch to figure out, but once you have them dialed in, they earn their weight in gold.

The traffic in Sydney is killer. Sitting for a long time will jackup the heat in the engine. Open roads are best. But with a decent running engine and good coolant system you should have no problems.