Overheating revisited

[brdman2]

If I recall correctly, no matter the reason for the change, the cause of the overheating problems and the resulting retrofit was a batch of defective fan modules. It seems like the units weren't tested enough, or under enough stress, or didn't meet Ford's tolerances, or were rushed through by the (overseas) supplier, or something similar. Then the next batch rushed into production was also defective, and meanwhile the cars (Birds & LS's) were being stacked up in storage lots. I hope someone will correct me if necessary, but I believe this to be a fair summary of the problems.

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Dennis Grant
1960 HT 208K
1992 Sport 225K

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[woodand]

Jodrod

Which Ford dealership did you take yours too. Since I work over there...thought I might use them. Of course I hope I never have a need to

 

[tr cruiser]

There were a lot of conflicting reports about the cause of the overheating problem posted on BON back in August. Supercrew [whatever happened to supercrew?] had this to say

We think someone is finally saying that the problem with the hydaulic fan could possibly be the pump the runs the system. Someone changed the pump last year to save a little money or weight and it does'nt have enough pressure to always start the fan. Somewhere over 30lbs. is needed and this one only gets up to 25lbs pressure. We'll see and if changes I'll let you all know. As far as doing the work on all these birds when the new parts are here we were told an outside company (no names)but involed with fords will make all the changes,since they have quite a large facility to handle the amount of birds and LS's we have built already.Which will let us concentrate on the new ones being built.

It struck me as a vendor/parts issue, with some pumps not coming up to spec resulting in failures under actual driving conditions. But who knows for sure?

 

[jodrod]

I have been thinking about the problem and I believe because of where the car was in the production cycle mine may have slipped thru a crack and did not get the retrofit. I believe the problem was the pump would not deliver enough pressure to start the fan running. This would be consistant with the way mine acted. I stopped to let it cool and top it off and then drove the two miles home and the gauge stayed dead center. The next morning while driving to the dealer (Autoway Ford in St. Pete) I had gone about 2 miles and noticed the guage start to climb. The engine had been at temp for some time. Fortunately that was two blocks from the dealer.

It has been replaced and I have about 30 - 40 miles on it since, some at interstate speed and everything is fine so far.

Hope the only visits to the dealer from now on are regular maintance.

 

[rt2esq]

Joe,

I steamed yesterday and I'm going in to replace my module. What is the precise part that must be swapped. Do you have part numbers??

I am certain my bird has the defective unit and it just lasted a bit longer due to luck. I am not taking any chances.

BTW, did you get the pics I e-mailed to you??

Happy New Year.

RT2ESQ
Triple Black #1049

 

[jodrod]

rt2esq,

No, I don't have any part #'s, all I know is they said it was the fan module that they replaced.

Did you check your water level? Mine was full when it overheated and does your heater work? When out of automatic mode, I could not get it to pump out any heat, even set at 90F. I now have about 500 miles since the work was done with no problems.

The pics are great, I am going to resize them and post them on the Yahoo site. Great comparison to the vintage Bird.

edit: The files are in the folder vintage...

 

[CodiakCB]

I had an over heating problem last Friday on my way to the airport in Shelton WA to watch my son and his kids jump out of an airplane, which is a whole differant story - "why jump out of a perfectly good airplane", right? I will be taking it into Ford next Thursday for a check and see. I had to put a gallon of water into the system just to get home. I did notice the fan was running more than usual so I was watching the gauge closely, glad I was. Update later. Oh, the kids all made it down safely🙂