Hi!
I bought a 1990 colony park wagon with 109,000 miles on it late last spring. Stock 5.0L 302 engine. I've since put 3,000 miles on it.
Back in the Spring, I took it on a trip to Pittsburgh. The thermostat sadly only has: Cold, N O R M A L, Hot.
It ran between R and M the entire trip long.
Later on there were some coolant leaks, including the water pump. I've fixed those, the coolant level stays the same, I'm not worried about my work there.
The car continues to run between R and M in night time driving when it's cooler. But on a long trip out to Virginia (5 hours each way) for the fourth of July, in which I had 4 people, luggage, the A/C on full blast, 100F weather with 60% humidity and even some mountain driving... the car has been running at the "A" the entire time on the highway at 70mph and going to the "L" in traffic, to the point where I had to roll down the windows and turn off the A/C when it kept, slowly, creeping up.
It goes back to the "M" if I turn off the airconditioning.
It just makes me nervous.
It's been mentioned that maybe my fan clutch is bad, which should help in traffic and is a cheap and easy fix.
I might also look at a higher-flow thermostat; but I replaced that when I did the water pump and that shouldn't make much of a difference. The temperature is consistent with what it was like at 109,000 miles when I bought the car, so I don't think I broke anything. It's just really hot weather right now, and I'm putting much more stress on it.
If this really is fine, I won't fix what ain't broke.
But I'm wondering if I might find a 2 or 3 core radiator for my car? Handle these humid summers and mountain driving much better?
Again, it's a 1990 colony park, same as the grand marquis I'm pretty sure and should share a lot of parts with fellow panther bodies. I am new to the world of car repair though. When I search for grand marquis, i ONLY find single-core radiators. Silly uncreative computer databases
Does anyone know of another model, a mustang, or something else, that has the same exact radiator size that would be compatible, but for which I can find a 3 core version? And then I can tell salvo, autozone, or any of the other online radiator dealers to look for that car to pull up the right radiator. I'm finding 3 core radiators for a 5.8L, but I have the 5.0L... unless they're the same radiator and the computer databases just don't realize that.
Oh, and what's the consensus these days on aluminum versus copper?
I bought a 1990 colony park wagon with 109,000 miles on it late last spring. Stock 5.0L 302 engine. I've since put 3,000 miles on it.
Back in the Spring, I took it on a trip to Pittsburgh. The thermostat sadly only has: Cold, N O R M A L, Hot.
It ran between R and M the entire trip long.
Later on there were some coolant leaks, including the water pump. I've fixed those, the coolant level stays the same, I'm not worried about my work there.
The car continues to run between R and M in night time driving when it's cooler. But on a long trip out to Virginia (5 hours each way) for the fourth of July, in which I had 4 people, luggage, the A/C on full blast, 100F weather with 60% humidity and even some mountain driving... the car has been running at the "A" the entire time on the highway at 70mph and going to the "L" in traffic, to the point where I had to roll down the windows and turn off the A/C when it kept, slowly, creeping up.
It goes back to the "M" if I turn off the airconditioning.
It just makes me nervous.
It's been mentioned that maybe my fan clutch is bad, which should help in traffic and is a cheap and easy fix.
I might also look at a higher-flow thermostat; but I replaced that when I did the water pump and that shouldn't make much of a difference. The temperature is consistent with what it was like at 109,000 miles when I bought the car, so I don't think I broke anything. It's just really hot weather right now, and I'm putting much more stress on it.
If this really is fine, I won't fix what ain't broke.
But I'm wondering if I might find a 2 or 3 core radiator for my car? Handle these humid summers and mountain driving much better?
Again, it's a 1990 colony park, same as the grand marquis I'm pretty sure and should share a lot of parts with fellow panther bodies. I am new to the world of car repair though. When I search for grand marquis, i ONLY find single-core radiators. Silly uncreative computer databases
Does anyone know of another model, a mustang, or something else, that has the same exact radiator size that would be compatible, but for which I can find a 3 core version? And then I can tell salvo, autozone, or any of the other online radiator dealers to look for that car to pull up the right radiator. I'm finding 3 core radiators for a 5.8L, but I have the 5.0L... unless they're the same radiator and the computer databases just don't realize that.
Oh, and what's the consensus these days on aluminum versus copper?
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