Coolant Flush

Yeah so my car overheated on the way to the photoshoot. I looked at everything imaginable that could be causing this. Well I was in such a hurry Friday night that when I filled my coolant up, it was very low, I forgot to mix straight coolant with water. So pretty much I am running straight coolant. I believe I spotted the problem way before anything was to happen to the engine internally. A few questions though, what kind of 50/50 coolant should I use and how much? I believe there is a drain cock somewhere on the radiator that I can use to flush the coolant out. Any info would help. I have to be able to drive my car! I hate seeing it sit in my driveway. Thanks in advance.

should be a drain on the bottom of the radiator, if not, you could always undo the lower hose to drain it.. dunno about brands of coolant, so thats on someone else to chime in. i would think any normal brand would be fine though.

Any good quality coolant will work just fine. Prestone etc....

I also add a bottle of "Water Wetter". Which drops the temps another 5-10 degrees. Good for track days.

I would look at other things,like if the cooling fans are coming on,themostat,ect.The coolant overflow tank could be empty and the motor shouldn't overheat unless it was really low and then i would want to know were my coollant went.I run straight distilled water in the gto and add 50-50 antifreeze for the winter.

theres a couple companys that are making some real nice flush products just go into to autozone and check them out. like tony said there must be something going on to get hot would probably be a good time to replace the thermostat while you have it drained.

I'm thinking the straight coolant is the problem... Running 100% coolant is too thick to properly move through the system. I'd empty half of it out and refill it with distilled water. Then start checking fans and thermostats etc.

When you were overheating, did you notice it your fan was on?

Josh I would be wondering to like Tony said where the coolant went in the first place? You may have another issue there.

its broke, go buy a gt500

lol i love andrews idea.

Actually, after a ton of work and troubleshooting, the radiator fan will not turn on. I did a full coolant flush and checked every connection. Could the thermostat cause the fan not to come on?

Have you changed from the stock grille? Some aftermarket grilles are worse as far as letting air to/through the radiator. Here's some threads for you to check out:

1.) http://forums.themustangsource.com/showthread.php?t=462555&highlight=radiator+fan

2.) http://forums.themustangsource.com/showthread.php?t=458075&highlight=radiator+fan

3.) http://forums.themustangsource.com/showthread.php?t=449482&highlight=radiator+fan

4.) http://forums.themustangsource.com/showthread.php?t=409428&highlight=radiator+fan

My fan quit working, but it was because the shroud was cracked and catching the fan blade, causing the fan to get hung up and it burned up the fan motor. Several hundred dollars later, new fan, blade and shroud, it has been fine since.

Sooo after taking it to Ford here in tahlequah, they said my PCM was giving a weak signal to my fan! Yeah right. I don't belive my PCM will go out that fast. I mean its an 07. Opinions???

Could it be something in the tune? Have you had it re flashed?

Stuff breaks, Josh, and sometimes at weird times. Could be just an unreliable part.

Yeah cause they never are right??? Right! Seriously, if you don't trust them... Who do you trust?

Why don't you try and get it to david at bill knight?

Never heard of a weak signal before, but who knows.

lmao I agree David. I am pretty sure I knew more about my car than they did. They didn't even know the new gt was a 5.0..... Sad I know. I am going to do some more diagnostics this weekend since I have some time. I will keep this updated. Any opinions are thoughts are welcome. David, I may be coming up to see you.

I concour with ford

I'm guessing Ford says reading low signal because the voltage reading coming from the coolant temperature sensor is low. It could be that this sensor is bad and sending a false signal to the PCM. If the PCM is getting the wrong signal it could in theory think that the fan doesn't need to come on because it's not at the correct temperature. Of course the PCM doesn't read temperature but rather voltage in relation to temperature. Just my .02

Maybe you should just be nice to your car? It could be that time of month for her...

Oh I am nice to it. It loves burnouts, racing, and speed. I haven't done any of that in awhile so it must be depressed.

Yes, I'm sure that's it. Maybe you should go out and wipe it down.

I am thinking it might be a fuse.... I am replacing it today after work.

So I replaced the fuse and the cooling fan turned on as soon as I started it. I took 5 quick drives and the fan was fine until I turned it off and started on the 5th drive down the road.... the fan stopped cooling and hasn't started back. Any suggestions?

replace the fuse again

check the fuse again, I imagine the first one was blown? The fan could be drawing to many amps blowing the fuse.

So would it hurt it if I change it from a 40A to a 60A?

Sounds like a problem with the fan if its blowing the fuse. Not sure how you would go about finding out how many amps the fan should be drawing? You can easily check that to see where you are at with the amps.

If it's blowing the fuse... something is amiss. It could be that the fan motor is starting to go out or you have a short somewhere. If you put in a larger fuse you run a risk of it overheating the fan and catching it on fire (happened to me). Remember the fuse is a safety so you don't ruin a device.

Fire!!! Sweet. Can I collect insurance on that? lol Welcome to my family the new 5.0! lol I am starting to think it may be the fan itself. Hmmm maybe this is a good chance to get a new radiator and twin fans....