New gal from TX

[mln385]

Originally Posted by snakewench

I took some pics of the engine bay today. You can see the gallery on my profile page. If you guys see anything I should consider changing, please let me know.

Thanks!

You would greatly improve your cooling if you install a shroud in the front nose area as well as a different fan shroud. In the front all the air is going around the radiator (Pic) and your radiator shroud is only pulling about 60% of air through radiator. A fan shroud should cover all the area of the cooling fins.

Nice looking car.

[Tutosnake]

I like it! Always a fan of pit stripes...

[Sminor]

There's nothing better than a well-read, good natured wench who can wrench! Welcome to the madness. I believe these guys have you well on your way to solving your heating problem.
If you like the idea of a hundred Cobras in one place, motor on up for the London Show in June where there are usually two hundred or more (we also do a couple track days at Mid-Ohio that week).
steve

[vector1]

Originally Posted by snakewench

Oh yeah, and this wench can wrench too!

My favorite wenchy quote from James Shirley's Hyde Park (1639):

"...'tis no shame for men of his high birth to love a wench; his honour may privilege more sins. Next to a woman, He loves a running COBRA!"

(loosely interpreted, of course...)

Oh, it's twue. It's twue. It's twue, it's twue!

anyway, check the temp of the thermostat and make sure your not undriving the water pump. if the fan is set to come on at 205 the stat is prob in that range, takes a bit for everything to catch up once it gets there. cheers

[Clois Harlan]

I was going to suggest you stop by James' shop. He is one of the really good guys around Houston. By the way he likes bikes too! I have fought the battle you are fighting. Good Luck.

Clois Harlan

[427 sam]

Nice looking car you have there, and good driving weather too ,life just aint fair, we got snow here at the moment, Regards Sam

[DonC]

Welcome to the madness.
All good suggestions going here and I'll add my .02 worth. Definitely make sure the radiator is completely shrouded. Any air not going through the radiator is wasted. In general make sure there isn't any air in the cooling system. I use distilled water with a bottle of Water Wetter and about a quart of antifreeze just to keep the PH honest. X2 on checking the gauge to make sure it's somewhere near accurate. Laser thermometers are pretty inexpensive.
Get as much air out of the engine compartment as possible. Poke arount the ERA website for the vented wheel wells. Every little bit helps. Try a test with some sort of soft wedge (rolled up shop towel) under the rear of the hood and see if that helps keep the heat down. If there is a significant difference look again at some way to get the hot air out. A couple of the folks in our club are running vents or louvered panels in the hood to help with cooling.
You might also try a lower temp fan switch to catch the temp increase sooner. look at different models of fans to find the most efficient.
Keep us posted on what you do. No end of experience out there on correcting the problem.
On a side note keep an eye on the Mile Hi Cobra Club site for their annual Cruise Colorado event. A great run and there are usually a few cars from Texas that come up along with us other foreigners from Oregon, Illinois, Ohio etc.
DonC

[YerDugliness]

Originally Posted by snakewench

The car has a 180 degree thermostat with 16" electric puller fan, which was the largest single fan available from MS when the car was built. She runs aluminum heads w/10.5:1 compression
Thanks!

Welcome to the Houston area. The guys are right, the Houston heat can get to a Cobra. My Cobra has a 16" puller fan and it does keep the temp down below boiling, but at times I really doubt my temp sensor is correct as I have seen the needle pegged all the way to 250* and no issues, 13# cap. If you want to never have to even watch the gauge, do the shrouding in the front to force all the air that goes through the fishmouth the radiator, that's a great start. I don't have a shroud on the engine side of the radiator and I have managed without it, but I have no doubt a dedicated shroud on the engine side of the radiator with the puller fan would be a safer option.

Originally Posted by snakewench

You mentioned the Houston Cobra Club yahoo group, but I can't find it...did a yahoo group search, but nothing close came up...do you have a link by any chance?
Thanks!

I am a member of the HCC, but for some reason Yahoo quit sending me the daily post links....they are a good bunch of folks, you'll feel right at home. The guy on here to look up is mtpockets......do a member search on him and tell him you'd like to sign up for the club and he'll hook you up!

Cheers! I know right now a Cobra doesn't seem all that usable with the weather we've been having, but come February you'll find it much better and by May it might just be too hot....you'll be looking for heat guards for your firewall soon as your feet start cooking in the footboxes on 59 near the arch bridges...VERY slow in rush hour, you'll appreciate any cooling upgrades you do there more than anywhere else in Houston....the traffic SUCKS!!!!

Cheers!

Dugly

[Racer_X]

Originally Posted by snakewench

I took some pics of the engine bay today. You can see the gallery on my profile page. If you guys see anything I should consider changing, please let me know.

Thanks!

SnakeWench,
I see under drive pulleys, chevy based distributor and chevy alternator..... and your fan shroud isn't covering the entire face of the radiator. Also your radiator cap is at a low position in line with the radiator and engine. That'll make it harder to make sure all the air is out of the cooling system. Do you have a air purge point elsewhere on the engine? Are you sure the system is full and no trapped air exists?

Besides the chevy parts on a Ford, your issue with low speed overheating is the under drive pulley system. Too slow water flow for our heat, and it's not hot yet as you well know.

I'd change the pulleys to standard ratio crank and wp pulleys, 1:1 ratio if I recall, and then see what your water temps are. Bet they stay in line then. Next item would be at least an 18" fan with shroud covering the entire fin area of the radiator.

The Houston Cobra Club is Houstoncobraclub@yahoogroups.com

Racer_X
Kirkham #374 (under construction)

[dallas_]

Welcome!

I'm surprised that no one has commented on the picture of the asses in your gallery.

x2 on the suggestions to start with your radiator. Shroud the front, and get a better shroud and fan for the rear. That will help a lot. You are getting nowhere near the cooling capacity of your radiator with that setup.

Nice looking car. Enjoy it while it's cooler.

edit:
It gets hot here in Dallas too, so we added hood louvers to help get the heat out of the engine compartment.

[DonC]

For reference here are a couple of photos of my ERA showing the fully shrouded radiator (from the front) and the vents in the wheel wells to help remove air from the engine compartment and vent heat from the header pipes.


Please excuse the bugs as the car just went up for it's winter cleaning. As you can see the entire nose is closed off so incoming air goes nowhere else but through the radiator.


Wheel well vents. Again, pardon the dirt.

DonC

[xlr8or]

Wench,
Here's what I did. Solved the problem for less than $200 and was able to sit in Phoenix traffic when it was 115 degrees out with no problem.

I was having problems with heat and the supplied cooling fan was blowing fuses in my wiring harness. Decided rather than keep putting that stress on the main harness i would go ahead and upgrade the fan and the wiring.

The wiring harness is available for with and without A/C.. I got the basic with A/C option. it was $79
It's available from The Hollister Road Company and is designed specifically for this swap. Mark VIII, Taurus, Two Speed fan relay kit.




For the fan upgrade I got some info from the Hollister site and a few others and settled on one that is from the mid 90's Cougar and Lincoln. Dorman part# 620118 It's a Dorman OE replacement part for $89 at RockAuto Auto Parts

Install was pretty straight forward but the fan was taller than the radiator by about 1 1/2 inches. Width was perfect I trimmed the stock mounting tabs off the fan shroud and added some 1 1/2" aluminum angle to the flanges on the radiator so the shroud slides right over the top of them. Then drilled through the shroud and angle and added captive nuts and bolted the shroud down.

Here's pic of it installed.

[snakewench]

Wow, guys, I am in awe of the amount of incredible information put forth here! I cannot thank all of you enough for your input. I am sooooo glad I joined CC!

You Cobra dudes ROCK!!!

[xlr8or]

He'll we're just glad to have some estrogen around here.

[jolsen42]

I'm surprised that no one mentioned it, but also check your timing. Might be a little retarded.

John O