New leads, plugs, cleaned radiator - Ford Forums - Mustang Forum, Ford Trucks, Ford Focus and Ford Cars

juarez · 01-04-2004, 14:05

Well, I've just taken in the radiator for a "professional" clean (where they pull the side-tanks off, as opposed to spraying water into it), and I changed the plugs & leads yesterday
(gone from 8mm silco supressed silicone leads (no brandnames), Denso plugs (garden variety, v-groove, also badly fouled after only about 10-15 thousand km.. to NGK Iridiums with a tiny center electrode, one heatrange colder (they'll foul too quickly I think :() and some 8.8mm spiral wound cords which I got cause they were out of Magnecore KV85's, but these should do the same thing for $100 less, I hope)

Aaaannnyyywayyyy, I should get the radiator back in a while, I'll chuck that in and take it for a spin, and tell you all how it goes.. I expect some minor improvements in power / responsiveness, and a much better idle (it was pretty poor before). As for the radiator cleaning, I expect (hope for) it to run a lot cooler, as I have eliminated all other reasons for it to run hot.

P.S. Took mums Ka down with the radiator, and managed to chirp the tyres going into second around a corner, but it sounded like a full-sik (tm) blow-off valve... Never thought I could have so much fun with a 47kW engine

juarez · 01-04-2004, 23:56

Well, it's all been done now, and here are the results:

Performance: Idles much better, as expected, seems to have a bit more pick-up (about as much power now, with A/C on, as it used to have with it off.. so perhaps 2-3kW extra power somewhere in the rev range).. not bad, but not the best way to spend $240

Cooling: Holding it at high revvs, with A/C on did get it almost halfway up the normal bar after a couple of minutes, but it dropped off much quicker.. I'll do a proper test soonish.

Overall, happy, except it perhaps cools to well, and it only took 8-9 litres of coolant, not 15, which was weird (worrying too)... also it froze the LPG converter over pretty easily, so thats a worry (if it does that every time I start it up, I'll have some problems getting to uni

)

galapogos01 · 01-05-2004, 02:39

if the LPG convertor froze up, im guessing you dont have enough coolant in there...

good news with the plugs. i wonder why mock use the autolites, and how much they charge for a set - gotta be half a reason.

Jase

juarez · 01-05-2004, 02:44

Thats the interesting thing..
I got a 5l bottle, filled it with water once, poured it in, second bottle, got about halfway and it decided it was full.. thats like 7 litres, and it's meant to take 15.

Turned the engine over and stuff, ran the A/C and stuff, it wouldn't accept any more water...

I checked everything, can't find any blocks or anything.. it's really weird, and kinda annoying :(

galapogos01 · 01-05-2004, 02:47

Once youd put in the 9L, did you run the car until the thermostat was open, with the heater on, then fill the rest of the cooling system?

SPHELL · 01-05-2004, 04:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by galapogos01

Once youd put in the 9L, did you run the car until the thermostat was open, with the heater on, then fill the rest of the cooling system?

exactly right, you have to warm the car up to operating temp and have the heater on then you should get 15L in providing it was totally drained.

juarez · 01-05-2004, 04:16

Yeah yeah, I'll try it again tommorow..

The thing is, I took it for a fair run (4-5km total, semi-hard driving), it was definitely warm, and I had the heater going, and it still didn't want any more water (the low coolant light wasn't on, anyway)...