Passenger side engine cover

Otis; According to a TSB published in March, 1974, the right engine cover with a hole to access the expansion tank was introduced in January 1974 effective with body #52426. While its common to refer to the last 4 digits when looking at serial numbers, the TSB references 5 digits. The hole was to check coolant in the expansion tank instead of the pressure tank to eliminate the possibility of eventually ruining the pressure cap seal. Since you mentioned later serial numbers, a number of build dates and serial numbers have a way of not matching.

Body number 52426 was assigned to chassis number 6768.

I've been considering cutting that hole in 6018, as per the TSB. Looks handy.

My car, 7260 has it, and it is handy for checking the level in the expansion tank. You need to have a flexible stick or something to stick into the hole to check the level in the tank as you cannot see from that angle. I use a flexible piece of cardboard and stick it into the tank until it hits the bottom of that tall tank, mark the cardboard at the top of the tank then take it out. The wet spot should be about half way up from the bottom to the mark you make.

Thanks for the info. Looks like there wouldn't be too many Ford Panteras built having the hole. Did all of the Panteras after Ford was done continue to have them? I am unsure if I have noticed it on the GT5 cars.

quote:

Originally posted by sjdennis:... to check the level in the tank as you cannot see from that angle....

an anecdote...
when I first drove 5177 home, I thought it was running hot in traffic so I wanted to check the coolant level. the turbo setup air inlet was over the top of the caps and it was considerable effort to remove. like said, one could not see the coolant so I took hose pipe and filled the expansion and swirl with engine running. my impression was it took a lot of water.

next day I called previous owner and asked if he had ever noticed any coolant leaks. his reply was it was always full when he checked. "?" How did you check, i asked. his reply..."every time I open that petcock on radiator coolant came out!"

KNOW your car.