Need cooling system advise - small block Ford

I got a 64 mustang radiator with a mechanical fan and 160 thermostat and it runs a little too cool at 160-170, on highway when the rpms are up 190

 

I have my distributor hooked up to ported vaccuum and my trans to manifold vaccuum on the carb.

Can not run a fan on the water pump due to room so I have the electric in front of the radiator (also the radiator hoses hit the fan if I run it on the water pump)

Radiator is a downflow (inlet and outlet are on top and bottom on different sides of the radiator so it has to be, correct?)

I was messing around with the timing so I am not sure what it is set at right now. One question I have on that is my timing point is on the passangerside of the engine and when I rev the engine the timing mark on the balance turns counter clockwise (or behind the timing mark on the engine) I have never seen it go behind the mark, this makes me wonder if the timing mark is on the wrong side of the engine and I have way to much timing in the engine

I have no shroud due to the fan being on the front of the radiator

 

What year is the engine? Don't remember when timing marks went to pass side, but possibility exists you have mismatched timing marks/balancer/damper. Probably not, but I had it happen a long time ago...

Line up mark on cover on your TDC mark on balancer/damper - check where your rotor is in relation to #1 plug (make sure you're not 180-out). If you're within a rotor's width of the cap terminal, you're in the ballpark. If not, you may have mis-matched timing marks.

Most common cause of mis-matched timing marks is change of front cover for reasons, various. We can probably solve this if you know it's what's going on.

What side is your water pump lower inlet on? I'm assuming driver side if your timing mark is on pass side - if so, odds are you have a reverse rotation pump...is the pump aluminum or iron? Aluminum again puts percentages on the reverse rotation side (although there are normal rotation aluminum pumps).

You could have a couple problems...

EDIT - Went & looked at pics you posted previously - appears pump has inlet on driver's side. You *might* have a reverse rotation pump & it ain't doing squat for you running backwards...

Look under/behind the water pump inlet & see if there's another timing pointer there...just for grins.

 

I will do it when I get home in about an hour and post up what I find.

To tell what direction of pump I have do I need to pull it all the way off or is there another way of telling with it on the engine?

 

I would try to do whatever it took to install a high CFM (3,000 and up) electric fan behind the radiator because I have seen too many cars overheat with electrics in front of the radiator. Also, make sure the lower hose is not colapsing at higher RPM's. I have seen alot of cases where the hose gets sucked shut. Is there a spring in the lower hose?

 

I installed some hose clamps all the way down the hose when it broke down in Utah so it would not colapse at rpms

 

well im running the same setup and had major problems with it over heating and it was the crappy zirgo fan so i bought a 2700 spal s blade and it doesnt even come close to over heatin now and i jus had to eat the first fan i bought cause they wont take it back

 

sweat I am on my second zirgo fan (I broke the first one by dropping it) that might be the cheapest route to start with

 

yea i was worried about block problems but i went ahead and bought that spal and she runns great ive had it doin 95 down the xpressway and around here the last few months its been 110 degree heat index
so u do the math but if u wanna get a spal for a fgood price call southern rod parts

 

Run both transmission and vacuum advance off of some manifold vacuum source.

No, I'm not going to debate it....again.

 

so you are running a similar fan to this?

http://www.a1electric.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=AEOS&Product_Code=30102113

 

I will.

Ford used both manifold & ported vacuum on many OEM advance units - these had two ports on the advance unit on either side of the diaphragm.

The rest of the Fords all used ported vacuum.

I won't argue it any further than that...

I'm pretty sure there's no way to tell except to pull it & look at the impeller.

I'd get a new hose with a spring in it. Don't trust the clamps...might be a "quick fix" to get home, but I wouldn't run it that way.

 

Okay going to bring back this old thread because I finally got around to fixing my problem and thought it might help someone else out if they run into the same problems.

I started with a set of March pulleys from Summit, this helped in two ways, first is they are high water flow pulley system to speed up the water flow from the water pump, but more importantly the ones I got are a one groove v-belt setup that gave me the extra clearance from the radiator to the crank pulley to run my new fan on the backside of the radiator. I went off of Hammrd29's suggestion and got a 2700 cfm Spal S blade fan. To top everything off I installed a 160 deg. t-stat and am running a 50/50 coolant/antifreeze mix. With this new set up it is a world of differance and have not run into any overheating issues and my 41 is running better than ever. Thanks for all the help on this one guys.

 

If you are changing fans anyway, why not take it for a ride without the fan and shrouding to make sure the fan itself isn't restricting airflow?....Obviously this would have to be done at highway speed when the fan would be useless anyway