Going Nuckin futs

[BlownGTS]

Well heres an update. I replaced the t-stat with a 180 deg Robertshaw that my buddy had. Works perfect at this time. A new problem arose in that after driving it hard or driving it for an extended period, after shutting it off it will lose coolant. I made a little trip out of town this weekend. The entire trip @ 90mph + it stayed in the "N". When I started driving around town it went up to the "A" and would go back and forth to the "L". As far as I could tell I did not lose any coolant anywhere. After letting the car sit for a few hours I pulled the cap off and it was nearly 1/2 gal low. The overflow bottle was @ the "Full hot" mark. This tells me that either I have a weak rad cap, or it's burning off in the combustion area somehow. Can I run a 19-20 # cap? Will this cause any problems? If that does'nt work then I'm going to have to get rid of this thing, since I can't afford to tear it apart again and find a cracked head or block.:( I'll pull the plugs out later and pressure test the cooling system to verify whether or not thats the culprit. God I hope not On a lighter note I finally throttled it a bit over the weekend.... I don't remember having traction problems in 3rd or 4th gear before:D I blew the doors off of a H/C/I 91 GT Saturday. He was also running a 75 shot. We raced from a 50mph roll, I put 2 or more bus length's on him before shutting down @ around 125. Man that felt good. BTW it did'nt even heat up to the "R" on that run Damn car's got me stumped. Later.

[BlownGTS]

O.K. I give up, I have tried everything anyone has suggested...all to no avail. This thing will still push coolant past the radiator cap, into the bottle. I went and got 2 more Robertshaw T-stats, drilled holes in the tops of both, no change. I got new 16# Ford rad cap and a Moroso 18# cap, no change. I filled the coolant from the heater hose, temp sensor hole, radiator filler neck, upper water outlet, no difference. I can say without a doubt that there is no air in the system!!! My only other options are
1) Replace the water pump.. Could this Stewart pump be too strong and it's cavitating the coolant? I'm using a fox style W/P pulley, it's smaller than stock. Could this be a problem? Spinning too fast?

2) Yank the intake and look for a blown intake gasket, maybe that is filling the cooling system?

3) Pull the heads and look for blown H/G, cracked head etc. No evidence of this in oil, coolant or out of tailpipe though

4) Keep filling the system and drive it till I can find something else to buy and just get rid of this pile!
I am at wits end here, any more ideas?

[Mitch Peoples]

But it sounds like you have blown a head gasket. Temp guage fluctuations, loosing coolant, etc. I know tearing apart a motor can be a pain, but you're probably not going to sneak this kind of a problem over on a potential buyer.

Swapping head gaskets builds character, believe me.

Good luck.

Mitch

[BlownGTS]

Well Mitch your the winner:D . It was a blown H/G. I swapped them last Friday. It only took about 5hrs or so with a couple of breaks. The #5 cylinder was blown from a steam hole into the fire ring The general consensus was that I , 1)Did'nt torque the heads enough (70ft lbs the first time) 2) Did'nt properly burp the cooling system upon first start up (air pocket) 3) Did'nt coat the gaskets with Gasgasinch. So this time I called the ARP tech line and asked. I was told to torque my studs to 90#'s on top and 80#'s on bottom. I filled the cooling system through the temp sensor hole, and waited for it to burp. It runs like a banshee now, no more o-heating, all 8 cylinders firing. Feels like a different car now. Thanks to everyone for the help. Dyno & Track #'s coming soon:D Any guesses.

[Mitch Peoples]

That's a good turnaround time for swapping head gaskets too!

Glad to hear it worked out. There are a lot of variables such as suspension, type of transmission, fuel system, tuning, etc that will determine what numbers you can run. I've seen mid to low 11's and even 10's with similar combos.

Mitch

[BlownGTS]

Well I actually was only expecting low 12's- high 11's. It went 12.50 @ 115 with the old wounded motor. Hopefully I'll be suprised:) Thanks.