[Mustangdewd3.8]

Quick Fix Tip: Car Overheated?

I had some extra time today so I thought I share some information that some
may not know or havn't thought about but can come in handy on the road if
such an occasion should occur. This has happened to me twice in 1 year and
3 times since I owned my steed. Shouldn't happen this much, but it does.
There are numerous reasons to why a car overheats, Water pump broken, Fan
shorted out, Thermostat stuck, etc etc. This Quick Fix Tip I'm gonna post
for you today is a Thermostat quick fix.

Scenario: Say you go out for a drive no matter what the distance, come on
who doesn't drive their steed! You're driving along and you notice your
engine guage has gone from C or 'Normal' to HOT. Not good right. Well of
course you don't want to drive your car on hot, so you pull over pop the
hood and see what's up. Now this could be a numerous amount of problems,
But check the tubing going from your radiator to your Core where your
Thermostat would be. Squeeze the tube with you hand, if there is a lot of
pressure in the tube, then your thermostat is broken or stuck. Essentially
a thermostat holds back water, to flow through the engine to cool it off, so
the engine can heat up and give you heat in the car. So say the tube is
pressurized. Hopefully every stang owner has a tool set in their trunk, any
simple ratchet set should do the trick. So you diagnosed a broken
thermostat. Remembering a thermostat just holds back water to let the engine
heat up to I believe 195 *F then should release water throughout the engine
to cool it off, should it be stuck the water will never flow and the engine
overheats. Take your ratchet set and take off the two bolts holding in the
thermostat to the core(this is right below the upper intake manifold). You
will loose some water but you're on the side of the street who cares, but
you don't want to lose too much so try to keep the pipe connected while you
remove the bolts. Then once unbolted pull it up and take out the
thermostat, be careful the water can be HOT.

After you take out the thermostat, just bolt the tube back on. Remember the
thermostat just helps the engine heat up so you can have heat in the car, it
really isn't too important to the engine running. In fact, back in the old
days most people took out their thermostat so the engine could run better
in the summer. Now there is just a non stop flow of water in the engione
and the engine should cool off almost immediatly. There ya go, you're back
on the road. No heat in the car but hey the car will now make it from point
A to point B. Then once you get to point B, Just go to any local auto
market and pick up the thermostat for your car and just unbolt everything
again and put that thermostat back in.

That is my Quick Fix Tip of the day.

Good Luck!

-Mustangdewd

Have any suggestons or corrections just post away I hope this helps some people. Now to go buy another thermostat O,o

[GTRaptor]

Remember the thermostat just helps the engine heat up so you can have heat in the car, it really isn't too important to the engine running. In fact, back in the old days most people took out their thermostat so the engine could run better in the summer.

That is entirely FALSE, the thermostat function is to keep the water under pressure inside the block. This promotes better heat transfer, and reduces the chances of getting "hot spots" inside the block. It also creates a cooling effect on the water that goes through it, it is like sparying hot water through a nozzle, it cools down a bit.
And last, the TStat will give the coolant "enough time" to cool when it goes into the radiator.

That is the reason all cars use thermostats, has little to do with the heater. Even cars without heaters use thermostats (we are talking old cars of course).

If you remove the thermostat you might SEE less temperature in the gauge, but that is not valid information, the real temperature you want to measure is the one inside the block, thats where things can go wrong. The gauge might reflect a lower temp, but it is actually a "cooling effect" of the water going faster through the sensor.

You can judge this easily, the gauge might be somewhat erratic, with temperatures climbing and going down suddelny, this is caused by vapor cooling and heating up again. That is not desirable, it means the coolant is BOILING due to a loss of pressure on the block side. Remember that water under pressure has a higher boiling point, hence less chance to evaporate.

So to all that love to remove their thermostat (old school trick, but wrong)...DONT.

[Mustangdewd3.8]

Originally Posted by GTRaptor

That is entirely FALSE, the thermostat function is to keep the water under pressure inside the block. This promotes better heat transfer, and reduces the chances of getting "hot spots" inside the block. It also creates a cooling effect on the water that goes through it, it is like sparying hot water through a nozzle, it cools down a bit.
And last, the TStat will give the coolant "enough time" to cool when it goes into the radiator.

That is the reason all cars use thermostats, has little to do with the heater. Even cars without heaters use thermostats (we are talking old cars of course).

If you remove the thermostat you might SEE less temperature in the gauge, but that is not valid information, the real temperature you want to measure is the one inside the block, thats where things can go wrong. The gauge might reflect a lower temp, but it is actually a "cooling effect" of the water going faster through the sensor.

You can judge this easily, the gauge might be somewhat erratic, with temperatures climbing and going down suddelny, this is caused by vapor cooling and heating up again. That is not desirable, it means the coolant is BOILING due to a loss of pressure on the block side. Remember that water under pressure has a higher boiling point, hence less chance to evaporate.

So to all that love to remove their thermostat (old school trick, but wrong)...DONT.

it's a quick fix, for a broken thermo( by broken thermo I mean stuck I mean it's fine if the water sits in the radiator all nice and cool but if the thermo is stuck shut, then that cool water will not maintain the temperature of the core of the engine, hence you need to let the water through, no the water will not cool as quick as it used to but at least it will cool down the engine, instead of heaving a dry core just running on the own created heat which is quite a bunch), you can make it to a shop if a thermo breaks by taking it out if your prepared, instead of calling a tow and costing yourself a lot of money.

and for the corrected information I ran 3 months fine without my thermo until i got around getting a new one. and that was 5 months ago I believe? and unless my engine breaks, then it doesn't work. It works. i mean I would reccomend you fix it quicker, but you don't need it in there. but it did work on the old cars, if it doesn't on the new cars then I guess don't do it, worked for the 64 i helped restore and the 94 i drive O.o.

Hence quick fix, this will allow you to continue the drive and go to a shop.

-dewd.