Dr. Watson here. Mr. Holmes regrets he is unable to answer in person at this time, as he is smoking some hashish, purely for research purposes. But my good friend and colleague has often lectured me that when you eliminate the impossible and accent the positive (or some such twaddle), then it must be the timing.
I didn't know that. Learn sumptin new every day, if your lucky.
Those are all good thoughts but I have not changed any pulleys. The crank and water pulley are stock. I'm in agreement that at idle you would expect flow. The fact that it didn't until I accelerated is the reason I am going to replace the pump and radiator - and more importantly, it's going have a relatively straight bottom hose to the rad. The "snaky" bends in the bottom hose doesn't sit well with me. I am not very verse in fluid mechanics but I do know that pipe bends and various pipe materials yields vacuum and flow pressure drops. I'll need to reference some of my old books but I believe that the Darcy Weisbach equation is one of the equations that might shed some light on what's happening in my situation.
If the radiator is full, can I make the assumption that the rest of the system is full?
I currently have all my belts off so I found a picture online that is exactly the same belt configuration. Like in the picture, I also removed the AC. The belt wrap around the water pump is the same. I purchased a Murray water pump a couple of days ago. I will order a Robert Shaw thermostat as you mentioned. Hopefully the new radiator with shroud will arrive early next week.I read all the posts so hopefully I have it all straight.
If you only have a 1200 cfm fan I would replace that first. That is not enough to cool a cup of coffee.
- hot coolant flows out the intake manifold into the top of the radiator, down the radiator where it is sucked out of the bottom of the radiator. I have not seen any other way.
- You mentioned you have an Explorer engine. The Explorer V8 engine uses a reverse flow water pump and a reverse flow ONLY water pump. They are the same as the 94-95 Mustang and the last 302 T-birds. It is totally different from the normal SBF waterpump and does not interchange with anything else. You couldn't screw it up if you wanted to (other than putting the belt on backwards)..
- Can you post a picture more from the front so we can see the belt configuration? I couldn't really make anything out from the side.
I am a big fan of Stewart Component water pumps. They flow more and are very affordable. I have them on a couple of my sbf and have used them in 100+ temps and they work fine. The one in my 56 is over 15 years old.
Stewart Components
They use Robert Shaw thermostats because they flow better. They drill a couple little holes in them but regular Robert Shaw thermostats can be ordered and you just drill your own hole.
Stewart Components
That being said, a stock water pump should be fine with a stock engine.
Here is a picture of the SPAL fan I used to replace my cheap no name one that quit after 2 years. I made a little shroud out of 16 ga sheetmetal and bent it on my workbench with some plywood and a hammer.
Below is a picture of the 94/95 Mustang unit I have on my 56. You can see the amount of belt contact I have around the wp pulley. I tried less in the first design and I had too much slip.
I live in lovely Franklin Indiana.
Originally from Toronto.
